bbc online language courses (via mad science). nice. no registration, nada. just go and play and learn and keep track of your progress yourself.

but i still will use buenos días even when morning is gone.

Computer Science does not contain or deal with the principles operative in the writing and debugging of large, nay, HUGE, eclectic, software programs. This is the realm of Software Engineering. By a similar token there is no principle of the theory of random processes that says that the works of Shakespeare cannot be written by 1,000,000 monkeys pounding 1,000,000 typewriters either, in fact in principle that would be one way of reproducing these works. No serious student of Shakespeare who knew something about random processes would propose such an undertaking, of course. A mathematician who knew nothing about typewriters and little about Shakespeare, however, might if Ronald Reagan pursuaded him that the problem should be worked by assigning 1,000,000,000,000 monkeys to 1,000,000,000,000 typewriters. In software engineering as well as mechanical engineering there is the concept of feasibility to be considered.(john mccarthy on sdi, 12 sep 85)

one more thought on glancing

i remember a conversation that went around new devices who would let strangers tell each other that they are ok, just ok.

itsnotok (audio/x-mpeg, 271 KB)

i don't know what effect the patriot act has over there, but for sure it doesn't make them more social as keeping their guns nearby the bed and googling.

googleranking (audio/x-mpeg, 537 KB)

when i saw the first tangible media devices and listen to stories like: wouldn't it be nice when you can feel the motion and mood of a person through wire, i wasn't amuzed. reminds me on the situations when your skin aches and you can't get rid of the feeling and start to scratch yourself all the time. most likely that ends with scabies.

teleworking doesn't function without meeting people from time to time. videoconferencing doesn't substitute conferences or business meetings, emails are often misunderstood, information theory is too narrow...

closing the comment feature, but finally talking with each other when they meet in person doesn't mean that software creates a social relationship at all. it just creates a topic, people can talk about, as they talk what was on tv yesterday and maybe helps to create an interest group.

whoishe (audio/x-mpeg, 554 KB)

something is wrong here. to call for new devices to say/show someone i am ok is not the answer. it 's just like waving with another flag. again i am back at tom sherman's line in a video in which he endlessly talked with a computer. when he got the feeling the machine's attentiveness is fading away he swings in his rocket chair and says with a smile on his face: "there is a life outside the screen". so call it anything, but don't call it social.