Mother of Mercy. I was digging through my old posts and found this unpublished, unfinished draft started on October 4, 2006 titled "pacman???". Apparently I stumbled across version of Pacman written in Excel and was so shocked that I could only write the outline of the post in a barely organized list of URLs.
Reading through those ... apparently my initial horror led me to look into a whole bunch of other things, including the Javascript Arcade with versions of classic games written in Javascript. Back then, people were looking at using a variety of DHTML tricks to do graphics in Javascript. In the days of Chrome Experiments, a few short years later, this no longer seems insane, though now you're more likely to want to do this in Flash ... and sure enough someone has done so.
Reading through the tiny notes and trying to reconstruct my thought process ... apparently the idea of using Excel to implement Pac Man, and the challenges of drawing lines in the DOM, took me back to the ideas of in Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics, Jim Foley's text, the first book I learned graphics from. There have been many versions of that book since, but they'll all tell you how to create lines on a grid, whether you're doing it with low-level hardware or with cells in Excel ... shudder.
Apparently creating graphics on top of a windowing system and browser reminded me of the idea of virtual machines, a fundamental idea in computer science in which one computer system can be used as the "physical hardware" to create another computer system on top of it. Once you create one virtual machine, it can then be used to create another ... and another, and another. Another "seminal" book for me, Douglas Hofstadter's Godel Escher Bach, explores the consequences of layers of virtual machines in much creative detail.
So the point being, the more advanced our computers become, the more likely it is that we'll be creating things like Pac Man in Excel.
I don't know whether to weep in joy or fear.
-the Centaur
Posts published by “centaur”
I loves me that woman, Sandi Billingsley. We be married now:
And I love our groomsmen and bridesmaids and all of our friends who dressed up, the good sports that they are:
Double props to my groomsmen, who were sharp as tacks in their gear and didn't give me too much grief me for pushing them so far out of their circles:
I also love Mom and deeply appreciate her organizing most of the wedding, and I love the Francis family and the Billingsleys and would showcase them too if the pictures had come in yet (soon!)
But I love most her:
Here's to you, Sandi.
-your Centaur
And I love our groomsmen and bridesmaids and all of our friends who dressed up, the good sports that they are:
Double props to my groomsmen, who were sharp as tacks in their gear and didn't give me too much grief me for pushing them so far out of their circles:
I also love Mom and deeply appreciate her organizing most of the wedding, and I love the Francis family and the Billingsleys and would showcase them too if the pictures had come in yet (soon!)
But I love most her:
Here's to you, Sandi.
-your Centaur
... moderation of comments is now ON, spamfiends.
-the Centaur
-the Centaur
Recently as both a followon to my thesis research and as a part of my work for the Search Engine That Starts With A G, I've been investigating a number of papers on graph theory as applied to semantic networks and Web link graphs. This work isn't "new" per se, since these models and techniques for graph analysis go back years if not decades, but it's only recently - when vast real-world networks have become available in machine-readable form along with the computer power necessary to analyze them - that enough work has been done to illuminate how important it is to analyze the properties of networks in detail.
One of the most interesting papers I've encountered so far was The Structure and Function of Complex Networks, a survey of mathematical and empirical studies of networks that I had wish had been available when I was doing my thesis work. The most important result I think to come out of recent graph theory is that simple uniform and random models of networks don't tell the whole story - now, we have new mathematical tools for modeling a wide range of graph architectures, such as:
There are more issues in graph theory than I can readily summarize, including issues like resilience to deletion, models of growth, and so on; many of which are directly relevant to studies of semantic networks and processes that operate over them.
Another paper, The Large-Scale Structure of Semantic Networks, applies these techniques to real-world semantic network models drawn from sources such as WordNet and Roget's Thesaurus. This paper, like the survey article Graph Theoretic Modeling of Large Scale Semantic Networks, seems to find that real semantic networks have scale-free, small-world properties that aren't found in the simpler mathematical models that people such as Francis (cough) used in his thesis.
SO, anyone interested in semantic networks or spreading activation as a tool for modeling human cognition or as a representation scheme for an intelligent system would do well to follow up on these references and begin an analysis of their systems based on these "new" techniques (many of which have been around for a while, but sadly hadn't reached everyone in the semantic network community (or, at least, hadn't reached me) until more recently.
So check them out!
-the Centaur
One of the most interesting papers I've encountered so far was The Structure and Function of Complex Networks, a survey of mathematical and empirical studies of networks that I had wish had been available when I was doing my thesis work. The most important result I think to come out of recent graph theory is that simple uniform and random models of networks don't tell the whole story - now, we have new mathematical tools for modeling a wide range of graph architectures, such as:
- Small World Networks. A traditional graph model says nothing about how far you may need to travel to find an arbitrary node in the graph. Think of square tiles on a floor - each tile is connected to four others, but the number of steps needed to reach any tile is a function of the distance. But anyone who's played the parlor game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" knows that real-world human relationships aren't arranged this way: everyone is connected to everyone else in the world by a very short chain of relationships - on average, you can reach almost anyone in the world in only six or seven handshakes. This shows up in graph analysis as the "mean geodesic distance" between two nodes in a graph, and is an important property we should measure about our networks as they grow to determine what kind of network structure we are really dealing with. At the very least, a random graph structure shows small-world properties more similar to real-world graphs than uniform graphs, and we should consider using them over uniform models as a basis for analyses.
- Scale-Free Networks. Both uniform networks - where every node has the same link structure - and random networks - where nodes are connected at random to each other across the graph - have a definite scale or rough average size. Nodes in a random graph are like people: each one is unique, but their heights are distributed over a defnite scale so there are few people shorter than three feet and no people taller than nine. Real world networks don't have this definite scale: instead, they look the "same" no matter what size scale you're looking at. Nodes in a real world graph are like the distribution of city sizes: for every city there are four times as many cities at half that size. This shows up technically in the "degree distribution": the statistical pattern of the number of links on each node. This will no doubt have significant effects on processes operating over networks like spreading activation.
There are more issues in graph theory than I can readily summarize, including issues like resilience to deletion, models of growth, and so on; many of which are directly relevant to studies of semantic networks and processes that operate over them.
Another paper, The Large-Scale Structure of Semantic Networks, applies these techniques to real-world semantic network models drawn from sources such as WordNet and Roget's Thesaurus. This paper, like the survey article Graph Theoretic Modeling of Large Scale Semantic Networks, seems to find that real semantic networks have scale-free, small-world properties that aren't found in the simpler mathematical models that people such as Francis (cough) used in his thesis.
SO, anyone interested in semantic networks or spreading activation as a tool for modeling human cognition or as a representation scheme for an intelligent system would do well to follow up on these references and begin an analysis of their systems based on these "new" techniques (many of which have been around for a while, but sadly hadn't reached everyone in the semantic network community (or, at least, hadn't reached me) until more recently.
So check them out!
-the Centaur
...just think of:
Bwah ha ha! Inspirational posters a la Star Trek, already familiar to anyone who reads Slashdot, of course...
Bwah ha ha! Inspirational posters a la Star Trek, already familiar to anyone who reads Slashdot, of course...
I've been a part of the "Dragonwriters" writing group since 2002, when a group of people who attended Ann Crispin's Dragon*Con writing class decided that they wanted to stay in touch ... and did. We eventually came up with a slogan for our group ... "Dragonwriters: Torturing Our Characters for Your Pleasure" based on the idea that authors should put their characters through the wringer in order to create interesting stories. Well, now we have a t-shirt based on this idea:
Enjoy!
-the Centaur
Enjoy!
-the Centaur
I was going to start this article by tossing up a shout out to taidoblog, andy fossett's in-depth analysis of taido, but it then occurred to me that taidoblog is only the most recent of a whole category of blogs and articles that I've only recently started to notice, and even more recently started to truly admire: people who can actually think.
The object of inquiry of andy fossett's taidoblog is taido, his (and my) chosen martial art. This alone would capture my interest, but what's always struck me is not just andy's subject, but his method. He puts deep thought into his chosen interest: he maps out the landscape of practice, critically evaluates existing opinions, formulates radical new ideas, and puts them all to the test. He's not afraid to boldly throw out bad traditions OR to slavishly follow traditions that work, at least until he has learned all he can and/or developed something better.
Big Jimmy Style is the platform of Jim Davies, a similar investigator whose chosen interest is research and science. He and I don't see eye to eye in areas like healthy eating, environmentalism and voting, but I don't personally know anyone who puts deeper thought into artificial intelligence and cognitive science research - what it is, why it's important, how it should be done, and what it's goals are. Jim regularly holds my feet to the fire in our private correspondence, and in his blog he continues the tradition of calling bullshit when he sees it and constructing frameworks that help him tackle hard problems.
The strength of Gordon Shippey's Vast and Infinite comes from his clear personal philosophy, strong scientific training and strength of character. While at this instant his blog is suffering from Movable Type's "I'm busy this month" whitescreen, Vast and Infinite is the sounding board for G'hrdun's ongoing exploration of what works in the work place, a topic of deep personal interest that he explores from a clear objectivist ethical perspective informed by his psychological knowledge, scientific training and personal experience. If you watch long enough you'll also see scientific/libertarian analysis of modern political and scientific developments.
Scott Cole's The Visual Writer has always been overwhelming to me: there are more ideas bouncing around on his site than I've ever been able to mine. For a long time I read his articles on the theory of writing stories but his philosophical articles are just as interesting. While there are some areas he and I might disagree on particular points, on the majority of writing topics he's explored more issues that I was even aware existed.
And then of course, there's Richard Feynman's blog The Smartest Man In the World. Actually, it's not, and he disliked that title, but we can only wish Feynman hadn't died before blogs came to being. In lieu of that, I can recommend The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, which, despite some people's complaints that it rehashes his other books, does a good job of putting in one place Feynman's essential thoughts about the scientific method, the importance of integrity, the difficulty of not fooling yourself.
The point of me mentioning all these people is that they're good examples of people who are thinking. They aren't just interested in things; they're actually cataloguing what they see, organizing it, judging it, evaluating it; deciding what they want to do with it and formulating opinions on it. In andy's writings in particular he goes further: he's not willing to settle just for opinions, but must go test it out to find out whether he's are full of shit or not. And at the highest level, Feynman integrates challenging his own ideas and reporting the results of his challenges into the very core of the his being - because he who sees the deepest is the man who stops to clean his lens.
That's what I want to be when I grow up.
So go check 'em out.
Because everything is interesting if you dig deeply enough.
-the Centaur
The object of inquiry of andy fossett's taidoblog is taido, his (and my) chosen martial art. This alone would capture my interest, but what's always struck me is not just andy's subject, but his method. He puts deep thought into his chosen interest: he maps out the landscape of practice, critically evaluates existing opinions, formulates radical new ideas, and puts them all to the test. He's not afraid to boldly throw out bad traditions OR to slavishly follow traditions that work, at least until he has learned all he can and/or developed something better.
Big Jimmy Style is the platform of Jim Davies, a similar investigator whose chosen interest is research and science. He and I don't see eye to eye in areas like healthy eating, environmentalism and voting, but I don't personally know anyone who puts deeper thought into artificial intelligence and cognitive science research - what it is, why it's important, how it should be done, and what it's goals are. Jim regularly holds my feet to the fire in our private correspondence, and in his blog he continues the tradition of calling bullshit when he sees it and constructing frameworks that help him tackle hard problems.
The strength of Gordon Shippey's Vast and Infinite comes from his clear personal philosophy, strong scientific training and strength of character. While at this instant his blog is suffering from Movable Type's "I'm busy this month" whitescreen, Vast and Infinite is the sounding board for G'hrdun's ongoing exploration of what works in the work place, a topic of deep personal interest that he explores from a clear objectivist ethical perspective informed by his psychological knowledge, scientific training and personal experience. If you watch long enough you'll also see scientific/libertarian analysis of modern political and scientific developments.
Scott Cole's The Visual Writer has always been overwhelming to me: there are more ideas bouncing around on his site than I've ever been able to mine. For a long time I read his articles on the theory of writing stories but his philosophical articles are just as interesting. While there are some areas he and I might disagree on particular points, on the majority of writing topics he's explored more issues that I was even aware existed.
And then of course, there's Richard Feynman's blog The Smartest Man In the World. Actually, it's not, and he disliked that title, but we can only wish Feynman hadn't died before blogs came to being. In lieu of that, I can recommend The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, which, despite some people's complaints that it rehashes his other books, does a good job of putting in one place Feynman's essential thoughts about the scientific method, the importance of integrity, the difficulty of not fooling yourself.
The point of me mentioning all these people is that they're good examples of people who are thinking. They aren't just interested in things; they're actually cataloguing what they see, organizing it, judging it, evaluating it; deciding what they want to do with it and formulating opinions on it. In andy's writings in particular he goes further: he's not willing to settle just for opinions, but must go test it out to find out whether he's are full of shit or not. And at the highest level, Feynman integrates challenging his own ideas and reporting the results of his challenges into the very core of the his being - because he who sees the deepest is the man who stops to clean his lens.
That's what I want to be when I grow up.
So go check 'em out.
Because everything is interesting if you dig deeply enough.
-the Centaur
A shout out to Scott Cole and his always interesting Visual Writer site, which is more comprehensive than I could possibly describe in a few short paragraphs. If you're at all interested in improving your writing, the philosophy of words, or the philosophy of the human condition, you should check it out.
hEY! Check out Riva.com: they claim you can search for people in photos by face recognition, and this is what I get for "President Clinton":
More obscure people are harder to find, so it's not clear how well the software works overall.
But still! Minority Report, here we come.
-the Centaur
More obscure people are harder to find, so it's not clear how well the software works overall.
But still! Minority Report, here we come.
-the Centaur
Why did I not do this earlier? Flickr.
SO as many of you may know I'm a big fan of coffeehouses and sandwich shops: they're quiet places where you can chill out, have a nice meal, focus on your book, and, if wifi-enabled, whip together a decent blog entry with free refills on your soda.
And my favorite of all sandwich places? A tight, long-running contest between Panera Bread (nee Saint Louis Bread Company) and Atlanta Bread Company (especially the one near Perimeter Mall in Atlanta).
Now, I've been eating and reading since I was a kid, but my love of sandwich shops I think really started with Le Boulanger in Menlo Park during my internship at SRI. Since then, however, Atlanta Bread Company and Panera Bread became my favorites because of their high quality, good portions, salad/sandwich combos, nutrition information available online, and good iced tea.
But it may take a while before Atlanta Bread Company comes to California, and as part of the Big Adjustment I've been looking for a replacement. Up till now I've had little luck - the sandwiches at the search engine that begins with a G are good but not Panera-grade, and Le Boulanger in Mountain View, while very nice, is somehow not quite the same.
So imagine my delight when I find that a Panera Bread has opened in Cupertino! I found it of course with Google Local, which lets you ask questions like "panera bread near mountain view, california" and get coherent answers, along with a nice map interface that will lead you right to a place like this on Steven's Creek Boulevard in Cupertino:
Cupertino is a bustling town perhaps best known for some fruit company, but its charm for me is that it's roughly midway between my new home with its Olive Tree and my new workplace at The Search Engine that Begins with a G. It's blessed with (normally) temperate weather, which is perhaps why when I first showed up the patio was filled with diners (most of whom had departed by the time I decided to start taking photos).
The real delight is inside, however. Panera has a truly staggering selection of breads and pastries, and can assemble these into a wide variety of made-to-order sandwiches and specials that are best topped off with a cinnamon roll that's as asymptotically close to the Platonic Ideal of a cinnamon roll as you're likely to get in this world. (Yes, I read the nutrition info on the cinnamon rolls, and so limit myself to one every other time I go. I enjoy being able to go through the door; this enables me to eat more cinnamon rolls).
So happily I drop in and order my typical Bacon Turkey Bravo / Asian Chicken Salad combo (with cinnamon roll, of course), get my iced tea, noticing some guy who'd ordered the same thing get his meal, and sat down to read a book on C++. SO I'm sitting there, reading, having a good time, getting hungrier and hungrier, and eventually realize "this ain't right". So I head up to the counter and ask, and the manager's face flushed and he said, "I'm so sorry, I think somebody snagged it. We'll make you another one right away." I slapped my forehead - the man I'd seen hadn't picked up a meal identical to mine, but instead in identity, mine. Not their fault - but they made me another sandwich anyway.
And gave me a bag of cookies.
So, Panera Bread rules!
-the Centaur
P.S. Thank you, God; normally you know I don't like to put your name in titles or stuff like that (name in vain and all) but, hey, that was really nice of you to drop one of those off there and you deserve the credit. Thanks!
And my favorite of all sandwich places? A tight, long-running contest between Panera Bread (nee Saint Louis Bread Company) and Atlanta Bread Company (especially the one near Perimeter Mall in Atlanta).
Now, I've been eating and reading since I was a kid, but my love of sandwich shops I think really started with Le Boulanger in Menlo Park during my internship at SRI. Since then, however, Atlanta Bread Company and Panera Bread became my favorites because of their high quality, good portions, salad/sandwich combos, nutrition information available online, and good iced tea.
But it may take a while before Atlanta Bread Company comes to California, and as part of the Big Adjustment I've been looking for a replacement. Up till now I've had little luck - the sandwiches at the search engine that begins with a G are good but not Panera-grade, and Le Boulanger in Mountain View, while very nice, is somehow not quite the same.
So imagine my delight when I find that a Panera Bread has opened in Cupertino! I found it of course with Google Local, which lets you ask questions like "panera bread near mountain view, california" and get coherent answers, along with a nice map interface that will lead you right to a place like this on Steven's Creek Boulevard in Cupertino:
Cupertino is a bustling town perhaps best known for some fruit company, but its charm for me is that it's roughly midway between my new home with its Olive Tree and my new workplace at The Search Engine that Begins with a G. It's blessed with (normally) temperate weather, which is perhaps why when I first showed up the patio was filled with diners (most of whom had departed by the time I decided to start taking photos).
The real delight is inside, however. Panera has a truly staggering selection of breads and pastries, and can assemble these into a wide variety of made-to-order sandwiches and specials that are best topped off with a cinnamon roll that's as asymptotically close to the Platonic Ideal of a cinnamon roll as you're likely to get in this world. (Yes, I read the nutrition info on the cinnamon rolls, and so limit myself to one every other time I go. I enjoy being able to go through the door; this enables me to eat more cinnamon rolls).
So happily I drop in and order my typical Bacon Turkey Bravo / Asian Chicken Salad combo (with cinnamon roll, of course), get my iced tea, noticing some guy who'd ordered the same thing get his meal, and sat down to read a book on C++. SO I'm sitting there, reading, having a good time, getting hungrier and hungrier, and eventually realize "this ain't right". So I head up to the counter and ask, and the manager's face flushed and he said, "I'm so sorry, I think somebody snagged it. We'll make you another one right away." I slapped my forehead - the man I'd seen hadn't picked up a meal identical to mine, but instead in identity, mine. Not their fault - but they made me another sandwich anyway.
And gave me a bag of cookies.
So, Panera Bread rules!
-the Centaur
P.S. Thank you, God; normally you know I don't like to put your name in titles or stuff like that (name in vain and all) but, hey, that was really nice of you to drop one of those off there and you deserve the credit. Thanks!
You know the great thing about problems with your house?
It's still your house.
Thanks, God.
-the Centaur
It's still your house.
Thanks, God.
-the Centaur
What I find on the Internet sometimes scares me.
You've all heard of Mr. Kool-Aid Man, yes? An American icon, yes, a true hero of the soft drink generation. But few know about his turn to the dark side and the role the X-Men and the A-Team have played fighting his growing threat.
Of course, Mr. Kool-Aid man has been accused of malfeasance before, but it was actually a case of mistaken identity ... if you believe the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's official report, that is.
His true followers never deserted him, however, and Mr. Kool-Aid Man had only recently begun to return to public life when the Perry Bible Fellowship news broke the story of how he fell victim to mob violence(click on "Kids are Thirsty"). The horrifying true reality of how this warped his mind was revealed by our reporters at Applegeeks: "Oh Yeah".
Fortunately, Mr. T and Wolverine have joined forces to fight short and not entirely too well told battles to prevent Mr. Kool-Aid Man's evil from spilling out into the streets.
We don't yet know how this battle turned out. However, you'll read about it in the Weekly World News. And nowhere else.
-the Centaur
You've all heard of Mr. Kool-Aid Man, yes? An American icon, yes, a true hero of the soft drink generation. But few know about his turn to the dark side and the role the X-Men and the A-Team have played fighting his growing threat.
Of course, Mr. Kool-Aid man has been accused of malfeasance before, but it was actually a case of mistaken identity ... if you believe the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's official report, that is.
His true followers never deserted him, however, and Mr. Kool-Aid Man had only recently begun to return to public life when the Perry Bible Fellowship news broke the story of how he fell victim to mob violence(click on "Kids are Thirsty"). The horrifying true reality of how this warped his mind was revealed by our reporters at Applegeeks: "Oh Yeah".
Fortunately, Mr. T and Wolverine have joined forces to fight short and not entirely too well told battles to prevent Mr. Kool-Aid Man's evil from spilling out into the streets.
We don't yet know how this battle turned out. However, you'll read about it in the Weekly World News. And nowhere else.
-the Centaur
SO I've updated Studio Sandi once again including shots of more paintings, including a new shot of Earth Flower which really shows off her new faux stone frame style:
Go check it out!
Go check it out!
So, after two months, how good are things at at the search engine that starts with a G?
I don't even have to jazz this stuff up, folks!
-the Centaur
I don't even have to jazz this stuff up, folks!
-the Centaur
Well, I've been away from posting for a while handing all the things that have come with traveling to the other side of the country to start work at some search engine that starts with a G. However, I'm proud to report that at least one task is out of the way: it looks like I have a place to live!
Now the two most important features of this house were a place to put Sandi's artroom ...
...and my library ...
but the coolest thing: it has olive trees!
Mmmm ... I can smell me some Lebanese cooking in my future.
-the Centaur
Now the two most important features of this house were a place to put Sandi's artroom ...
...and my library ...
but the coolest thing: it has olive trees!
Mmmm ... I can smell me some Lebanese cooking in my future.
-the Centaur
Lots of people have pointed out that the Studio Sandi site had broken links in Firefox or on most Macintoshes. We don't know how this happened - we never had problems with the site before, and don't remember changing anything - but we do know how to fix it, and gave the site a mild makeover to boot. So go check it out! It will be changing over the next two weeks to incorporate more art.
-the Centaur
-the Centaur
... if you don't stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it. And one thing I missed is that my favorite breakfast joint, West Egg Cafe, had a showing of art by my favorite artist, Sandi Billingsley, and I didn't even announce it here.
Well, Sandi's show was called Egg of the Phoenix, featuring herself and her friend Donnie Ripner, and if you had seen it, you would have seen things like this:
Sorry you missed it! I guess you'll have to come to California to see her next show.
-the Centaur
Well, Sandi's show was called Egg of the Phoenix, featuring herself and her friend Donnie Ripner, and if you had seen it, you would have seen things like this:
Sorry you missed it! I guess you'll have to come to California to see her next show.
-the Centaur
SO as some of you know I just moved to California to start work with some search engine company that starts with a G. They're fun but kind of skulky so I won't tell you what I'm doing other than to admit, well, no, this isn't really My First Search Engine.
My first job working for a search engine company was as a consultant for the ELITE project, an innovative federated search engine design out of Emory University that was far ahead of its time. The ELITE vision - to enable all sites to both contribute to and benefit from search by making them both publishers and clients in a hierarchical chain of search engines - has still not been realized, resulting in massive inefficiencies and redundancies throughout the web as search engines process and regurgitate what web sites ought to be telling us directly.
The next was as one of the founders of Enkia, an applied artificial intelligence research company that turned its eyes to the web with a search product, Enkion, based (in part) on my thesis research and commercialized by the hard work of a team of sharp guys from Georgia Tech and elsewhere. The Enkion found information relevant to your immediate context, using feedback from what you were doing. We did well, even landing one big contracts before the Internet was pulled out from beneath us. Oh well.
SO I spent some time in industry ... first in police software, then in public health. All that was well and good, but I wanted to get back to research. Back to information retrieval. Back to artificial intelligence. Which led inevitably forward, to some search engine company that starts with a G. Will we be able to make a difference this time? Will we be able to make an advance that will stick?
Hey. Third time's the charm.
-the Centaur
My first job working for a search engine company was as a consultant for the ELITE project, an innovative federated search engine design out of Emory University that was far ahead of its time. The ELITE vision - to enable all sites to both contribute to and benefit from search by making them both publishers and clients in a hierarchical chain of search engines - has still not been realized, resulting in massive inefficiencies and redundancies throughout the web as search engines process and regurgitate what web sites ought to be telling us directly.
The next was as one of the founders of Enkia, an applied artificial intelligence research company that turned its eyes to the web with a search product, Enkion, based (in part) on my thesis research and commercialized by the hard work of a team of sharp guys from Georgia Tech and elsewhere. The Enkion found information relevant to your immediate context, using feedback from what you were doing. We did well, even landing one big contracts before the Internet was pulled out from beneath us. Oh well.
SO I spent some time in industry ... first in police software, then in public health. All that was well and good, but I wanted to get back to research. Back to information retrieval. Back to artificial intelligence. Which led inevitably forward, to some search engine company that starts with a G. Will we be able to make a difference this time? Will we be able to make an advance that will stick?
Hey. Third time's the charm.
-the Centaur
... along with national ID cards, retinal scans, and plugging the analog hole, is tracking American drivers wherever they drive:
ENOUGH of this shit. Historically, governments have always been far more dangerous than any threats they pretended to defend us against ... and the only reason the American government has been a notable exception is that it had "HANDS OFF YOUR CITIZENS" burned into its ROM.
It's time to re-declare our independence from government ... and re-assert ITS dependence on US, the autonomous citizenry.
-the Centaur
.... the general idea is that a small GPS device, which knows its location by receiving satellite signals, is placed inside the vehicle ... The Fourth Amendment provides no protection. The U.S. Supreme Court said ... that Americans have no reasonable expectation of privacy when they're driving on a public street. Even more shocking are additional ideas that bureaucrats are hatching .... . A report prepared by a Transportation Department-funded program in Washington state says the GPS bugs must be made "tamper proof" and the vehicle should be disabled if the bugs are disconnected ... [and outlines] a public relations strategy (with "press releases and/or editorials" at a "very early stage") to persuade the American public that this kind of contraption would be, contrary to common sense, in their best interest.
ENOUGH of this shit. Historically, governments have always been far more dangerous than any threats they pretended to defend us against ... and the only reason the American government has been a notable exception is that it had "HANDS OFF YOUR CITIZENS" burned into its ROM.
It's time to re-declare our independence from government ... and re-assert ITS dependence on US, the autonomous citizenry.
-the Centaur