On 17/05/2008, at 1:26 AM, Jessica Forbess wrote:
You are aware this list is called geowanking, right? You're 50 percent
Pom, so you must be familiar with the definition of wanker. Perhaps
you should find a list called accomplishing-things-in-the-real-world?
I'm sure that many a scientific breakthrough has been achieved while a
hand has been wrapped around fleshy bits for a bit of "Me Time". :)
Please read this page carefully:
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html?
Note that the colleagues were NOT happy about being asked such
questions. I perceive the reactions here as being similar. Yes, if you
invented Twitter or Flickr or one of the current sites, you wouldn't
take kindly to some unknown like me saying "sorry, that's crap". At
the same time, it is impossible to escape the fact that Twitter,
Flickr and the current sites most definitely and absolutely are crap
when you think about what COULD be there instead.
On 17/05/2008, at 1:49 AM, Andrew Turner wrote:
FOSS4G 2009 will be in Sydney. There is also a local OSGeo chapter - I
assume you meet with them?
Sydney is over 1500km away from here, and I couldn't really care less
about OSGeo, I'm afraid. I'm more interested in making something that
works, so that meeting in person is no longer the most efficient way
of working. Until we have achieved some form of system that maximises
efficiencies with less of the inefficient requirement of time, place
and environment, we're going to continue needing inefficient
requirements like time, place and environment.
Where _is_ the right place to start a rant like this? There isn't one.
What is the right time to make unwelcome, but true, observations?
There isn't one. Society has an abnormal expectation that we're all
smiles, puppy dogs, cute kittens and chocolate icing on birthday
cakes. Meanwhile, we're all dying from accumulative deterioration and
living in pain from debilitation and disease. Most of the world's
population is going to be wiped out in a few short decades, food is
running out, clean fresh water is nearly gone.
Sorry, but I'm not sorry. It is a statement of the obvious that
Twitter is mindless, trivial and garbage. It is a travesty that
sharing photos is about the best that can be done with the sheer
enormous speed of our networks and the power of our modern computers.
It is pathetic that I have to spend my time belting buttons to write
something in text that will almost certainly be read with different
interpretations than I intended while writing it. I can't think and
have the computer respond with my creativity driving the process.
This is simply not good enough.
Much as Richard Hamming recommends, I am pointing out that examining
what you're doing and looking for the significance to make your
research worthwhile is something that should be done more often.
So why am I posting here? You might be wankers, but you're at least
wanking in the right directions. This is the group that is the closest
to the real challenges, out of all of them, that I have been able to
find. Anselm Hook is thinking about the deep significance of the
challenges. Mike Liebhold was involved in what I consider to be one of
the real breakthroughs - QTVR panoramas. So, as one of the things that
would be readily misinterpreted, you're only getting these messages
because this group is one of the best, not one of the worst!
So yes, point me to a list called "accomplishing-things-in-the-real-
world" and I'll go there. I don't think there is one.
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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