this is fascinating and funny at the same time.
notable quotable: So get this – went to my hairdresser tonight – trying to keep my hair in tiptop condition for the wedding and married life beyond. and she asked me where i was going after my appt. i told her I needed to either find some higher heeled shoes or a monster crinoline.. well doesn’t she have her crinoline lurking about the salon? She actually loaned it to someone to try with their dress, but it was too puffy!! Get out!
(clearly, antics like this, and the resulting karmic retribution, are precisely why i’m going to die an old maid.)
This is so cool. Apparently someone went around and took pictures of every single building with an address in Paris (as well as sideways views). So you can enter the address and get a picture of the building, as well as accross the street, down the street, etc.
I entered the last hotel i stayed at.
I never thought I’d say it, but the frenchies really take the cake on this one!
Fox News Channel’s extraordinary right-wing tilt
my horoscope today tells me:
“The secret of life,” declared sculptor Henry Moore to poet Donald Hall, “is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is — it must be something you cannot possibly do.”
that’s a nice quote, and i like henry moore besides.
i saw A.I. yesterday. it was weird. my jury’s still out. i’m too sensitive to like Kubrick’s misanthropy, but too cynical to buy Spielberg’s cheesiness. and the movie’s weird ’cause both theme’s are kind of fighting with eachother. the robot boy is the only sympathetic character. but finding a robot that is more sensitive than the humans, while being human yourself, doesn’t really make you think, just makes you distance yourself from the movie. but the photography and sets and all those “details” of the future were really cool. G liked it. she said it was a fairy tale, and she likes fairy tales. i can’t quite appreciate it like that i guess.
it did get me thinking about the future of robots. computers, and the like. i can’t see the future filled with robots that look, speak, and act like human beings. in fact all the research
(COMPUTERS AS TOOLS OR AS SOCIAL ACTORS?,
Chapter 6: Intelligent Tutoring Systems)
i’ve read says people have a strong dislike of anthropomorphic computer agents. i.e. Clippy, Miss Boo.
people want to be firmly in control of their machines. understandable. most of us don’t get what goes on inside those little boxes anyhow. putting a human face on top of the controls only pushes us even further from any understanding. and if you ask ordinary folk the right questions about why they don’t use the computer more, you’ll probably get to answer that sounds something like, “I don’t understand how it works, so i won’t be able to get it to do what i want anyway.”
so, yeah. i’ll be very surprised if humanlike robots get any further than some kooky R&D engineering labs.
but i guess someone probably said that about the web too…
New Angeles Monthly, June 2008
Weekend America, March 30, 2008
Los Angeles Times, March 13, 2008
Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2008
Nil by Mouth is written by Neille Ilel. Neille is a writer, reporter and user interface specialist in Los Angeles. If you think that's a lot, she's also got a host of meandering sidelines including improv comedy, tennis, cooking, drawing and thinking about learning to play the guitar.
Nil is her given name. It's a long story.
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