• Daniel Miller is an artist, writer, musician and web producer.
  • The content on this page comes from Livejournal, Nonlinear, Johnny Citizen, Delicious, Twitter and Google Reader Shared Items. I can also be found at Sugarfilled, LinkedIn, Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Last.fm and Amazon.
  • Running for Office: It's Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner
  • The kid’s psychic distance tolerance is seriously like 20 feet. And no walls in between either. 4 hours ago
  • Holy extra vanilla in the custom milk for the kid. But I think he likes my pina colada more :) 5 hours ago
  • Which buildg downtown is it where u can go 2 the top? 5 hours ago
  • Must…try…to not…send witty…email about…the colored balls… 1 day ago
  • Fish tacos underground for lunch. Nom! 2 days ago
  • Grinderman (by Grinderman) is perfect train home music today. 2 days ago
  • API Overview : Tech Center : NPR NPR’s API provides a flexible, powerful way to access your favorite NPR content, including audio from most NPR programs dating back to 1995 as well as text, images and other web-only content from NPR and NPR member stations. This archive consists of over
  • GWT and The Change Function Change Function = F(Perceived Crisis/Perceived Pain of Adoption)

    “With java for the development language and the browser for the platform, I think that ‘GWT change value’ is higher…”

    …funny thing is it is the Java part that is making the change value lower in my eval…even though GWT is clearly winning…
  • Lively Google gets into VR
  • Twitter Technology Blog: Summize and The Future of the Twitter API
  • This is Sand
  • The Screencast Blog: Using Java (GWT) with Google App Engine
  • Help me redesign the web
  • Learning from "bad" UI Shared for Ryan’s measured, intelligent critique vs. the Flickr thread’s flaming.
  • A Little Less Conversation All the handwaving is even getting to me, and I’m a professional daydreamer. Perhaps you’re also bored. I’ve decided it may have something to do with a fetish-like attachment to conversations. You may recall these things as rich, nurturing interactions you had with people you would run into. Then they became a site of marketing. A temple. Your once innocent interaction became transactional.
  • I cannot brain today
  • Early retirement is a false idol Have held this opinion for a long time. Of course it is easier to spout from your blog when you work for your OWN successful software company, and/or don’t have any responsibilities beyond yourself, but hey…
  • Frustrations (Update) 3 hours ago
    Update: Google Web Toolkit Blog: Getting to really know GWT, Part 1: JSNI:
    we naturally want to apply a lot of optimizations to source code and catch bugs as early as possible. Both of these goals are directly facilitated by Java’s static type system and the existence of great Java IDEs. That is why we, dispassionately, chose to center GWT on Java technologies. That’s it — no fodder for language wars here.

    // Lots of stuff about JSNI, which lets you put raw Javascript into your GWT Java code…
    …to which I say, fine, great…but why such a big deal?! Especially the way the above post made it sound—why would I care to use GWT if I’m just going to write everything in Javascript? The syntax for the in-Java Javascript, as I understand it, essentially escapes it—so no compile-time debugging there. Without a plug-in, the code won’t even be colorized correctly.

    Yesterday, shortly after writing that post, I started looking into OpenLaszlo, which I discovered about two weeks ago during all this …er, discovery process. So far, it looks very promising. I’m hoping to get some time to play with it on personal projects* this weekend. *It is getting to the point where I’m getting pretty unmotivated to learn Yet Another RIA Framework, so doing something I have a little bit more stake in is the best way to start. Plus it is the weekend. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.
  • Frustrations 1 day ago
    Professionally: I gave up on Flex on Monday for various reasons I won’t get into here. I’ve been trying to figure ways to possibly use it for various bits and pieces in the future as to not have wasted 1.5 weeks of my life exploring it as an RIA option.

    This leaves me back in GWT land, a place I explored for about a week when I first started, in between getting settled/bearings. GWT is very Java, and I’m learning that I don’t like Java very much. The entire experience is almost the exact opposite of Flex—Flex was easy to get off the ground and have some early success with, but fell flat on its face when trying to implement a second level of complexity (as well as having some high level issues for which there weren’t obvious work-arounds). With GWT, deviating from the prescribed quick start guides or tutorials is met with a quick inability to even run the code. We have a GWT demo already built—by consultants before I joined—and I can’t get it to run locally at all.

    It feels like a lot of these high level OOP languages have traded a complexity in the code (and that is relative IMHO—chasing function calls or chasing function calls in objects…not that much of a difference…the stuff we’re talking about for the web here isn’t rocket surgery) for complexity in configuration. This code calls an object in this library that is referenced in these three places plus another place for the actual debugger plus another for the compiler. Move the code or rename its folder and you’re focked. Anyone who can point me in the general direction of some insight in this area would be greatly appreciated.

    Personally: Deadbeat dads are still dads, and that’s frustrating. I’ve blogged about it before in an undisclosed location, but still…
  • Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) Heaven On Their Minds (2) 1 day ago

    will explain sometime in the future
  • What am I trying to say here? 4 days ago
    I was going to post this to twitter, but I’m curious how it will be “read” so I’m posting it somewhere with more linear comments:

    strength < coffee < world < people < power > anger > disruptive
  • UM OMG ok I'm just going to go back to bed now 5 days ago
    RA DIOHEA_D / HOU SE OF_C ARDS - Google Code:
    Radiohead just released a new video for its song “House of Cards” from the album “In Rainbows”.

    No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.
  • Now we're getting somewhere 5 days ago
    http://twitter.com/z0rk
  • Untitled 5 days ago
    everybody wants to be loved
    because, because


    Life is a lot different now. Overall much better than ever. I had way more thoughts earlier. But they’ve escaped me and I am exhausted. I am now that guy. It is a season. More quiet. More waiting. More conga lines in the living room.
  • Kiwi! 1 week ago

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs

    I might be a little late on this one, but it is so good I had to share.
  • This Is Just To Say, I Used An Anti-Pattern 1 week ago
    Anti-pattern

    In software engineering, an anti-pattern (or antipattern) is a design pattern that appears obvious but is ineffective or far from optimal in practice.

    The term was coined in 1995 by Andrew Koenig, inspired by Gang of Four’s book Design Patterns, which developed the concept of design patterns in the software field. The term was widely popularized three years later by the book AntiPatterns, which extended the use of the term beyond the field of software design and into general social interaction.

    This came up at work today.

    This Is Just To Say, via and older This American Life episode I just got around to listening to today (yay podcasting).



    The brilliant Geek and Poke
  • QotD & MotD 1 week ago
    Said the Gramophone: Priority on Your Attention:
    I might have Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder. Or I might not get along with heat waves.

    Everything romantic happens in the Fall. Nothing romantic, and I mean romantic, happens any other time.

    My car won’t start. That is because God is fed the fuck up.

    Self-righteousness is the breakfast food I am addicted to. Every morning, without fail, even sometimes at night.
    This is very close to my mood, save for the car, but no doubt God is fed up, so I’m about to listen to the tune recommended there. Can’t vouch for it yet, but the whole record is available for download, so what the heck.
  • I'm telling you, dogs on twitter is the new fad! 1 week ago

    From Geek And Poke

    See Also

    Also: adocu, one word twitter clone.
  • Be afraid. Be very afraid. 1 week ago
    You can’t destroy or diminish Deep Ellum. It was here long before all of the shiny shopping malls, the overpriced corporate live music venues and trendy “red velvet rope” clubs with their snooty bottle service. As was referenced time and time again last night, the area is the cradle of this city’s creative sensibility.

    If you’re content to live in a vacuous, benign existence with little sense of purpose or meaning, then stay at home and jerk off your X-Box.

    If you wanna break out of a routine that offers little or no spiritual or creative inspiration, then know you will be embraced and made to feel part of this very eclectic creative community.

    …There’s nothing to be afraid of.
    — Jeffrey Liles via finelinelive.com

    I’m all for a little button-pushing, as anyone who knows me or reads this blog will know, yet I find myself scratching my head at the angry young man stuff coming from the D-town art crowd. I was totally down with the finger-pointing and looking-down-on, even just a few years ago. But now I consider all the things that have changed in even just the last half decade:
    • Sociopolitically. Let’s face it, thinking about this category will send you into the fetal position. We don’t need to be reminded.
    • Economically
    • Technologically
    • Generationally. Generation Xers are no longer the taste makers. And FIIK what the youngins are into these days
    Technology is obviously the category that most interests me, as the Web has obliterated any and all mediated communication forms that came before it. And yet, when someone blasts the web—or XBox—in their defense of old-school mediations like the stage or the gallery wall*…well, their dearth of logic is the source of some serious eye-rolling.

    * And on myspace.com FFS! The irony!

    And it makes me not want to join that conversation. Me, the one who was a professional art advocate for years.

    Lots more to say on this subject. This is just a placeholder.

    I’m reminded of something I wrote in 2004:
    We rail against suburbia, but it is not the enemy: it is only our version of the enemy.
  • Writing Code Comments as Cognitive Emergence 1 week ago
    { I’m not sure if this actually qualifies as Cognitive Emergence—in fact it might be the opposite of—and I’m not sure if it might apply to other/all forms of writing. Feel free to steer me right. }

    I had my daily reminder of how smart I’m not while writing some code comments. I started to write something like, “A requirement of…” and then thought, “Wait, is it?” Turns out, it wasn’t. I was putting a (rather large) extra step in my code, which was adding complexity that might have been (I’ll confirm soon) the source of many headaches yesterday.

    { And that extra step is still in the app/code I posted the other day. Not sure many readers know Flex, but a gold star if you find it. }

    { Update: I quickly realized the step was still necessary* for my actual demo. The app I posted the other day still does not require it, however. }

    { * Update: Sort of. Not really. Good honk. Are we having fun yet? }
  • Real Snail Mail 3 weeks ago
    Our snails are equipped with a miniaturised electronic circuit and antenna that enables them to be assigned messages from hardware located within their enclosure. The moment you click ‘send’ your message will travel at the speed of light to our snail server where it will await collection by a snail agent.

    Once associated with the tiny electronic chip on the snails shell your message will be carried around until the snail chances by the drop off point. Hardware located at this point collects the message from the snail and forwards it to its final destination.
    The worlds first webmail service using real snails from boredomresearch. There’s even a blog.

    via Kester
  • Amy Hoy: Technique or skill? 1 month ago
    Technique or skill?
    Writing headlines that get dugg vs Writing headlines that get remembered

    Mastery of video game controllers vs Mastery of video game / problem-solving concepts

    Convincing people to pay for your stuff vs Creating stuff people can’t live without

    Google ability vs Research ability

    Being able to survive in a given business vs Being able to survive in any situation

    Knowing how to blog vs Knowing how to write

    Knowing how to prepare a lesson plan vs Knowing how to educate

    Knowing how to speak properly vs Knowing how to weave a compelling 45-minute narrative

    Being a CSS ninja vs Being good at learning multifaceted rule sets

    Writing good Java code vs Understanding programming theory

    Making pretty with Photoshop vs Analyzing the world to come up with impactful new things
    While this blog is initially about novel interfaces, primarily for narrative delivery, it is also about how we interface with life and allow novelty to change the way we do so. Much of that ability has to do with an intellectual flexibility that is highlighted in Amy’s list of distinctions. Hers is often excellent writing on these very topics, so if you haven’t already, head over to slash7 and read…
  • More Twitter Crossposting 1 month ago
    From my decidedly less business-like LJ:
    Twitter is unreliable, even as a service to humans. It’s been all over the internet for the last month or two, as their site has gone down as much as it’s been up recently, due to higher use. In terms of application development using Twitter as a platform, they recently throttled the API limit form 70 to 30 calls an hour, and apparently (I haven’t had a chance to get caught up on it, but am hoping to today), changed a bunch of the API calls themselves.

    All of this is fine if one understands that Twitter is a young service built by people with no sense on how to make their offering scale. “Send updates through Twitter” already has different expectations attached to it than “Send updates from your cell phone”…

    I’m still really interested in Twitter and developing Twitter apps, but I’m in it from a higher level. I’m not worried about business requirements just yet.

    Still, if one wants a quick-and-dirty mobile interface to their application, it still can’t be beat…
    The problem with having an API in the first place is having to support the API from then on. And if Rails is really the reason for performance issues, it is an interesting paradox, because I wonder if there would even be an API if Rails hadn’t made it so simple to implement…and then I wonder if the service would be as popular as it is without the many API clients out there.

    Update: If you are a real glutton for punishment, or love talk of API’s and/or Twitter, this is an interesting discussion.
  • Download Happy Sounding Sad Songs for Free, News, and a Sarajevo Story 1 month ago
    you can get Happy Sounding Sad Songs for free, no strings, totally legit…plus news…plus a story….

    read more…
  • Beautiful And Original Product Designs 1 month ago
    Smashing Magazine: Beautiful And Original Product Designs
    Successful product design manages to reveal useful functionality beyond its appealing form. No matter how excellent a design looks like, most customers aren’t likely to spend money on something they won’t be able to use. On the other hand, most people are likely to buy something useful despite the design it has.

    Yet the key to a truly successful product design lies in designer’s ability to combine both beautiful design and functionality making it obvious to the customers how the product can be used and which benefits it delivers. However, one can combine the beauty of design with the utility it is supposed to provide.

    Most products fail to pass this test and never reach the production stage; some products do manage to get to the stores. In the overview below you’ll find an overview of some beautiful and original product designs which will hopefully make the cut and will be available in the next years. Some of them are already available today.
    I have to find some time to check these out in more detail myself, but some very interesting interfaces here…
  • Forgive the Crossposting about Twitter 1 month ago
    there was life before Twitter, but the way we’re all talking about it, you’d never know it.
  • favrd 2 months ago
    favrd

    Textism: Oh, look, another web app
    So I spent the last few days knocking this together. It works on three principles: first, that anyone who wants to can have their vote counted; second, that things people find interesting are more important than people who find things interesting; and third, that by any means necessary, web-strategy, social-media, online-marketing webcocks – unaware as they are of how toxic their presence is in the arenas they cannot shut up about – must and shall be filtered out of view.

    There’s some fancy albeit inchoate weighting logic going on under the surface, and I’ve got a few vaguely neato features in the works, though it is as they say very beta. It will I hope grow, and, as more people are added to the voting ranks, be a reliable source for funny, weird, obnoxious, entertaining, inspiring, webcock-less, tiny little fragments of life.
  • Twitter as Tribal 2 months ago
    Michael Lopp on Twitter:
    The act of one human being choosing to follow another is a big deal. As long as nefarious intent is not in play, the connection creates what the social science nerds like to call an affinity map; by drawing a line between you and me, we can infer that we’re somehow connected. How are we connected? Who knows? Maybe you like nerd culture? How about gel pens? We’re not really going to know until we test that link by asking a question.

    …I’m eagerly watching Twitter evolve and organize itself. I’m dazzled as third parties are giving Twitter memory and context. But what I care about, and what has value to me, is the tribe of people in my ecosystem. Twitter is the best social network out there;, it’s a great social search engine;, and it’s a short strategic hop from being a terrific next generation address book.

    My tribe is not your tribe because you’re not using Twitter how I do. You wrote an Academy Award winning screenplay, only follow a few people, but have thousands following you. You sell shoes and follow each of the thousands of people who follow you. You are a major airline, but sound surprisingly human.

    Twitter’s value has nothing to do with the technology.
  • Breaking news, Twitter style 2 months ago
    News of a possible explosion rippled through the popular online service Twitter on Tuesday, in a preview of what’s to come in the realm of breaking news and citizen journalism. Twitter is a so-called microblogging site that allows users to send and receive short messages.

    At about 1:37 pm, software developer Dave Winer asked the Twitterverse: “Explosion in Falls Church, VA?”
    Breaking news, Twitter style

    What is so interesting about Twitter is what it is further exposing about what the web has been showing us for the last 15 years, that is a social experience of hyperconnectedness, attention, and most of all, mediation.
  • My Map 2 months ago

    My Map from Christopher Baker on Vimeo.
    Email became an integral part of my life in 1998. Like many people, I have archived all of my email with the hope of someday revisiting my past. I am interested in revealing the innumerable relationships between me, my schoolmates, work-mates, friends and family. This could not readily be accomplished by reading each of my 60,000 emails one-by-one. Instead, I created My Map, a relational map and alternative self portrait. My Map is a piece of custom designed software capable of rendering the relationships between myself and individuals in my address book by examining the TO:, FROM:, and CC: fields of every email in my email archive. The intensity of the relationship is determined by the intensity of the line. My Map allows me to explore different relational groupings and periods of time, revealing the temporal ebbs and flows in various relationships. In this way, My Map is a veritable self-portrait, a reflection of my associations and a way to locate myself.
  • American Dream Town 2 months ago
    I don’t know much about this video except that is uses and has the same name as the last song off my last record. My record is Creative-Commons licensed, so you don’t even have to get my permission to use it in noncommercial projects…I’ve already given the permission. Seeing it in a video like this is a lot of fun…

    read more…
  • The rest of the "bio" 3 months ago
    “The man wondered the streets aimlessly…” Band bio’s suck. Johnny Citizen’s is from a piece called “The Man” and does a better job of communicating the ethos of the whole Johnny Citizen enchilada.

    read more…
  • Hello World 3 months ago
    How have you been? I’ve been better I guess. But I’ve sure as fuck been worse.

    read more…