Coffee Shops Network

Screen Test

2011-12-08T09:37:00.001-08:00

David Koski just returned from a grueling work assignment in Illinois -- lots of car troubles, hospital for burns (scalding liquid).

Now he's back at his geometry again, contributing his abilities based on years of practice. This is his first screen cast of vZome in action, via the free Screencast-o-matic service.

Here's a longer tutorial.

Playing It Forward

2011-11-23T10:56:00.001-08:00

The criticism I get the most is "isn't it heartless and cruel to make a worthy cause dependent on income from games of chance? Why not just give them the money directly?"

Despite the economy of abundance we sketch as a backdrop, with the sun giving enough, in principle, to finance our surf, there's still the matter of triage and opportunity cost. The cost of whatever I'm doing now is whatever I'm not doing -- a tautology, and therefore more properly the business of philosophy than economics, but we can discuss that some other time.

Remember: the games tend to be didactic, in the sense of encouraging thought, though not necessarily about the worthy cause at the receiving end (someone in need of dialysis?), your wins redound to your benefit on your karma profile, nor need this funnel / tube be considered, ever, a sole means of garnering support.

Reach beyond CSN, by all means.

And finally: yes, there's a kind of Darwinian process in that some games won't attract loyal players and/or players with skill, and nor will the causes connected to them. This may be for a host of reasons. It's not my job to predict every corner case that might arise.

Remember: some people are philosophically opposed, on principle, to this or that. A chief benefit of playing it forward is getting to designate, even if only in the sense of a ballpark. If you don't want such-and-such a "charity" to be piggy-backing, taking advantage of your talents and skills, then here's a way to dodge those tentacles, to be free of those shackles. Drop charities. Turn your back. Adopt others. You have a lot of choice in the matter.

CSN puts you in the driver's seat. Manage your own karma profile.

Speaking of tautologies, it's easy to map this model to life itself. You're playing world game 24/7 and your playing has ripple effects that may benefit various projects and initiatives to some degree.

Others may study your profile to figure out what you're up to. Some may learn from your role modeling -- another way to have ripple effects.

Others may work to counter your biases, for example by attending to causes you seem to have no patience for, or which seem to rank low on your totem pole.

You might be a member of a team wherein the players have their individual biases yet, overall, the whole is greater than the some of its parts and lots of bases get covered.

Nirel looked like Mary Poppins tonight.

More Market Research

2011-11-18T09:52:00.001-08:00

I don't usually review ISEPP talks in this blog, but Gabe Zichermann's talk was too apropos to CSN work to log elsewhere. Tara and I parked quite a view blocks away in a downpour, plus I'd forgotten my raincoat so showed up wet in my dark suit coat and bright orange T (with a collar -- a reunion relic).

Gabe is quite hip in the pre-hipster sense of "tuned in" (also pre-hippie), and carried his audience pretty effortlessly through his presentation. Folks had no trouble following. He included a long excerpt from Storage Wars, a televised game based on the auctioning and purchase of storage units. In this case, I'd say the game serves a legitimizing function in that people empathize with the back end vulture culture that preys on lapsed units. Reminds me of Six Feet Under in some ways, another deftly edited TV series.

During the dinner, I wanted to run by our business model: vendor profits prime the pump, with contributions to player-selected targets commensurate with performance (heroics rewarded), self profiling ("what type of philanthropist am I?"). He encouraged us to use Twitter for this purpose and I will do so later.

Tara asked about military applications and whether gamification could lead to the breeding of an especially cowardly subspecies of drone nazi, a kind of subhuman (paraphrase). Gabe acknowledged that militaries had been using gamification for dark purposes since forever and yes, he shares her concerns. Tara has grown up around Quakers and is interviewing for Earlham College tomorrow, so you can see where our household might not be especially enamored of keeping a devolved idiocracy in a controlling capacity where outward weapons are concerned.

Gabe cracked an Occupy joke or two, knowing Portland was friendly to this global blowback operation. He also knew we're too elitist about coffee to think of Starbucks as inner circle. Having studied this market, I welcome the influx of coffee drinkers Starbucks provides, plus I'm not against Starbucks adopting a few game kiosks, with our without the CSN imprimatur (just remember, you saw it here first). We could use some of that muscle to get past Oregon Lottery zealots who cannot abide the competition. That would take some of the pressure off the reservations to host all the parking (plus some of our best game studios can only be reached by bicycle, or electric ATV -- approach quietly please, serious studying ahead).

Letter to Allen (Wanderers List)

2011-10-31T10:14:00.000-07:00

Hi Allen ---

"Religion" might be a misnomer, so we could say "ethnicity" and imagine one like the Jungian Society, which actively taps psychological resources through rituals involving symbols, dreams, incantations of various kinds.

I've been to some of these Society's lectures with Wanderer Nancy. The venue is a church building, but the content is not specifically Xtian in any way.

It's not that you can practice all the rituals within the format of a lecture (any more than in the format of a toast). No, the meeting hall is more for comparing notes and discussing the various dharmas (teachings) one picked up along the way, in whatever vision quest.

At least one speaker had met with Jung personally, had stories to tell.

I would say television successfully spread a world religion of consumerism / shopping that had been hitherto unknown. Many societies tend towards frugality, ship shape, no excess, minimal -- as an aesthetic, not as a sign of "poverty" (the few assets may be of high net worth). This notion [of] filling your garage and basement with cruft as a counter to depression and in reward for "working hard" would impress many a wise ass Cro-Magnon as stupid / psychotic to the bone.

I would not identify this phenomenon exclusively with "capitalism" however as giving individuals more power as routers, when it comes to spreading assets to nooks and crannies, with guidance from shared screens, might be the basis of a systems science with no special allegiance to the capitalist heroes when it comes to demonizing all competing "isms" (a sign of weakness).

For example, I regard the standing military as essentially a socialist institution (shared public property, institutional wealth over individual wealth) and the above description matches various soldiering philosophies regarding increased unit autonomy and self-direction within the ranks.

On the other hand, the shared focus on "capitals" in the sense of cities, state capitals, might merit the use of this word for some other ideology as well, supranational in focus, urbane and metropolitan.

So for the sake of debate let's call the new religion "capitalism" while reminding ourselves it's a rather different "invisible hand" this time, as the investors think more like Jung & Swedenborg than like Smith & Maynard or Marx & Engels.

Adorno and the Frankfurt School remain influential I would suppose, but I gamble more heavily on Vienna Circle influences, know those horses better (gambling is not verboten in this namespace, or call it "church bingo"). Yes, I'll offer myself as an example capitalist in this namespace (aka "designer religion"). In my case, it's another fork within Quakerism (we're dime a dozen on those). In other tellings, the Unitarians played a pretty big role. Depends on the historian, as always.

Kirby
CSN / Cult of Athena

Cubbies

2011-10-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'll have to check with the CFO if there's a financial claim on the English language word "cubby", which works in Scrabble. Will the King of English sue if I revector it slightly? Or maybe he'll join us in this use of the short form of "cubbyhole" (we suppress the "hole" aspect, but don't deny it completely -- "accentuate the positive" as they say).

So what's "cubby"?

A cubby is an alternative to Pod (not iPod, just Pod), which is another place to park your body while working, quite possibly in cyberspace. Mostly it's an alternative to "cubicle", which most cube farmers know well, as their home-away-from-home. You get tricked: buy this expensive home with a mortgage, but then you're gypped out of getting to live there most the time, as you squeeze into (a) a commuter vehicle, perhaps single occupancy and (b) a cubicle, often without window or privacy, where you get "supervised" for much of your adult life, not unlike elementary school, but they pay you.

The "cubby" is more of a complete dwelling unit solution and might be added to a camp situation without default demands. It works will with grid hookups, like an RV, but if these are not available, it works with various more semi-autonomous solutions involving composting, rain water harvesting and solar / wind energy collecting. We're talking about a large catalog of Office Depot supplies (you'd think Home Depot but the plywood industry is dead set against us at this point, plywood domes notwithstanding).

You get an operators manual and getting the thing going feels a lot more like booting a computer than doing upkeep on some ranch style suburban Frank Lloyd Wright wannabe. You've got a lot to learn, and might even need a special school (special ed) before putting "cubby friendly" on your resume. Like if the first day on the job for Verizon they send you to a call center in the Andes, and you've faked knowing the basics, you might not figure out about heat, or how to run the comm center. Best to not fake it. Find a retreat center that offers real experience, perhaps through your local church (try Amigos, maybe Steve Martin will take your call).

"dwelling machine rendering"
(by Andrew Owens)

The Fly's Eye Dome has become somewhat the signature / logo for the Cubby movement. There's a sidebar where we alternately heap scorn on, and collect donations for, the cube farmers, who now seem like they're living on squalor. There's "building sickness" and the shame of being gypped. There's knowing some of your peers are enjoying life in the Cubby club, whereas you're still expected to run around in a cube farm, like some rat in a maze, like Algernon before he took the red pill and got smart.

How does all this relate to CSN, other than we're thinking of staff housing? Well, because of the draconian laws against off shore gambling, we'd had to bring this in house more in terms of a subscriber service, like cable or satellite. Then we don't think of it as gambling, but fundraising, with the games serving a didactic purpose. Rest assured, we don't plan on keeping it this way, so completely out of the public eye. But for now, we have to use the "private party" motif, lest we come across as some unregulated casino trying to escape the Federal jurisdiction. That might work on Native American properties, but this is Portland, Oregon we're talking about.

There is a dome at OPDX by the way, looking something like a Cubby, but that's mostly a secret. There's a skin over it, making it look like a regular tent. Nothing illicit, just under the radar.

Note: you can wear a Cuffka in your Cubby, why not?

proto-cubby, OPDX campus

QOTD

2011-10-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

"My ideal is a certain coolness. A temple providing a setting for the passions without meddling with them."

-- Ludwig Wittgenstein (Culture and Values)

Some slides from my talk

2011-09-29T18:01:00.001-07:00

:: from Pythonic Andragogy ::

Faraday Rooms

2011-09-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

These were suggested to me at a recent conference as a synonym for what I was calling a Dead Zone, with some kind of public icon on the entrance.

You will avail yourself of such spaces when you want to frustrate cell phone and computer use, radio reception. People may still have personal listening devices. The point is to have conversations, meetings, without the interruptions or distractions of telecommunications.

People entering such a room are signalling their mutual willingness to suspend contact with the outside world and just focus on the matter at hand. One might pull out a cell phone to remember a name, but by social convention this might seem gauche.

You might even have a locker system like in a gym, although that adds a layer of inconvenience.

Some people simply do not wish to part with their telecommunications devices, especially if not that familiar with an establishment.

The "check your phone at the door" policy need not not involve physically parting with your device, although you may wish to park it elsewhere, as a convenience, when heading into a Faraday Room for a long day of intimate discussions.

Whether the Faraday Room is actually engineered to block all wifi and TV-radio would depend on the establishment. Given CSN serves a schooling function (without being too much of a testing center) having feats of real engineering exhibited is more encouraged than not.

Having stories to take home, about some of the Hogwarts-like qualities of the place (inexplicable magic, it might seem to some) is what any good casino aims to provide, whether or not it permits gambling.

Sounding Off

2011-08-27T13:00:00.001-07:00

We have a delegation in Nicaragua looking into development projects. This might be through Friends, though perhaps through FWCC to better protect overseas investors from Americans' xenophobia (have you noticed how guru yogis from India get demonized, whereas the Protestants fan out across the globe "saving souls"?).

The CSN is likely to be accused of offering gambling, given the heroics have variable outcomes (sometimes you wipe out) and there's money involved.

The USA is actively defying the WTO these days, which has pointed out the hypocrisy of harboring casinos in properly zoned zip codes, but then saying similar facilities are disqualified from providing their services over the Internet.

Tight regulations, left over from Prohibition Days (ongoing) have turned many normal human activities into social crimes against the state. The USA is one of the most illiberal nations on the books, thanks to its chief hypocrites.

In any case, to have brick and mortar studios on the ground, we only need prototype in private residences, by invitation, to get around the OLCC and so forth. We have already done this many times, as you will find memorialized in this blog, so no news there.

The "Duke's Equations" (as some of us call them -- a reminder of Duke's Landing days) have already been mastered. The games come over the wire, and the money goes from some place where it's authorized, and not in contravention to any law of the seas. Ships helping other ships in distress, is what it comes down to. We should not be prevented from offering humanitarian aid, even if we don't demand obedience to some Christian hierarchy (or whatever religious old guard).

Anyway, enough fulminating and pounding the podium or I'll sound like I'm just another preacher with a large choir to back me up. That's not my usual style of marketing, I can assure you.

CTO in PDX

2011-08-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to PDX, Nirel. Good to catch up some.

Related chatter on the design science and fashion meme: a focus on utilitarian gear, like the old fashioned Boys Life, but far more diversified and internationalized.

"Survivalist" conjures the wrong image as it's more just about perpetuating DIY skills, developing self reliance as well as a healthy sense of community (they go together).

Learning to grow one's own food or how to fix a farming tool is hardly "radical" unless you've been boxed in by supermarkets your whole life and don't know any different.

Synchronofile has published some data on design science fashion elements. Groups like to differentiate on the basis of costume (or uniform). I see no sign of convergence or conformity to a single standard.

Patrick Barton (Portland Energy Strategies) and I have been yakking about the "smart meter" as related to "smart house" concept for quite awhile, with "urban, semi-urban, rural and wilderness" one of the spectra, when contemplating "dwelling machines" or "sheltering systems".

What do these eco-village (not cube farm) installations have to do with CSN?

They're potentially financially powered by games pulled from stock, with heroics logged (journaled), values reflected, in the profile of the player. CSN games may not be available through other venues or may only be playable as group activities (some games aren't for solo play).

By analogy, you go to a sports bar for more that what's on the LCD.

You and your peers (friends, chronies, co-conspirators) win for these tribes, help sponsor, even as you go and live among them sometimes, as a valued community member (MVP).

My Project Earthala meme is well developed in sister journals. Think of some school for future diplomats in the Oregon high desert, as one of many worthy funding recipients, accredited through CSN circuits.

Part of the equation is STEM and/or STEAM (= STEM + Anthropology): what is a "mathematician" in this day and age, and might she likewise be an "energy strategist" (an optimizer, a doing-more-with-less pioneer).

Speaking of more-with-less, I was sharing with Steve Holden about my friendship with Kenneth Snelson last night, while sitting in the Blue House parking area (where we store the bike trailers, a small part of the fleet).

Kenneth grew up in Pendleton, Oregon, but upon becoming a world class artist with an international following, he settled in Manhattan. In so doing, he picked up a lot of Jewishisms in the form of sayings and memes, some of which he would teach me about in our at times extensive correspondence. We talked about "mitzvah" quite a bit.

Today, I'm attending what I call an "install mitzvah" where we help someone through the initiation process required to get some new process running on their computer (in this case Python on a Mac). Chairman (Rabbi) Steve will be present.

OSCON 2011

2011-07-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

The trend towards gamification of UIs, in cars and elsewhere, is a theme of one of the keynotes this morning. Other talks, on infrastructure, on community building, and on DIY science, have helped focus some of my conversations.

Although I'm carrying a "We're Hiring"badge, I'm not here as CSN CMO.

I'm toting the totem around, PSF snake. Chairman Steve suggested we park her at the Perl Foundation booth and that's where she is right now I'm surmising.

My other OSCON-related posts are in my other blogs.

Does the Nebula concept have relevance to CSN growth plans? I was at their big party last night, but that wasn't a place for business conversations. Why not just a pentagonal dodecahedron for edges, instead of something more complicated? What would we see upon turning it?

On the topic of 3D (spatial) logos, I think it's the responsibility of the designers to define its look from all angles, using CAD or other tool, prior to release. CSN LCDs will feature their share of dancing logos, coats of arms, other heraldry, both 2D and 3D.

Or, as some might say, 5D (tetrahedron4 + time1).

We believe in Diversity around here. Lots of comparing notes with people from Brazil.

Learning from Friends

2011-05-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

I participated in the fundraising event at the Multnomah Friends Meeting, not as CSN CMO, though we did use the company laptop and car, but as a proud dad.

My daughter is a member of this delegation, headed for Central America. We were raising funds to sponsor the group.

In a relaxed CSN setting one might dial up reports from the field from a large database of well crafted presentations. Yes, some of these might be on Youtube, such as the CDCA one we showed this evening.

CSN might have its more exclusive stashes as well, some local to a specific shop. Why? Because some causes mean the most to local players, or because the opportunities are restricted to specific friends, an inner circle.

I was mainly gleaning ideas. Serving refreshments, other goodies, from the sponsored locale, is one way to go. While we're talking about coffee, why not show the whole process up the line? CSN is into transparency.

Some people come to our shops just to browse those popular infrastructure videos, watch the web cams. Remember penny alley? We're not embarrassed to offer peeps.

Does you city have cams on the landfill, at the treatment plants, cleanup sites? One response to more surveillance of the public is to make the feed more available to said public.

Rather than some "us" spying on some "them", it's just ourselves, watching ourselves. Watch those webcams at the Oregon Zoo.

Followup: I was on projector crew for the Friends again today, this time for Tara and Luci presenting on their trip Jamaica (not as tourists). The circumstances were ad hoc and Tara jerked out the projector chord without using the cooling fan. Being a startup is difficult. Larry took me to StarBucks and showed me his "iBad". The flying app is especially impressive, takes some of the fear out of it (less likely to get lost maybe?). He left me here, working for CSN.

Instead of "delegation" I might say "away team", aware of the Star Trek associations. The Friends Meeting is like the mother ship, and these people slip off, to distant lands and climes, and return, reporting. Tara and Luci did a wonderful job, were top notch reporters. We salute Jamaica and its avid application to sports and health care. The world could use more principled athletes and physicians of many casts and sheens.

I had a quick meeting with the CHR on Hawthorne Bridge, staying friendly. CSN is no tiny tune when you're up close to the trumpets. I was on my way to see Stallman.

Screen Testing...

2011-04-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

by Jennifer Reeves with music by Raymond Scott and Tommy Dorset

by John Driscoll starring Amber Muir

Q & A

2011-04-02T12:07:00.001-07:00

Q: If the goal is to raise funds for worthy causes, what's to stop a shop from making a game be super easy, such that you'd have to work at it to lose. Wouldn't this maximize funding?

A: Remember the model: you're in competition for company profits, and if your heroics are insufficient to save the day, then wish your peers better luck. The company cannot afford to just funnel any amount to worthy causes so "game difficulty" is how to apply the brakes and really make the games instructive.

On the other hand, there may be times when just taking a survey, answering a questionnaire, is sufficient to have the proceeds go to such and such an agency, perhaps with matching funds. It's possible to have a game time out when various goals are reached. No one said they needed to be open ended.

Q: I don't get why I'd want to play in a coffee shop, especially one that serves adult drinks, when I could play the same games at home, and spend less on beverages.

A: you're free to stay home. Some find the conviviality of a shop appealing and are looking to others for tips. What's the hot new charity to be connected with? Remember that people compete with their profiles, with "cooler than you" a motivation (friendly rivalries, looking good on the runway of life... showing off).

Also, depending on your zip code, your CSN affiliate may have access to ingredients you can't easily get as an individual (ayahuasca for example). Again, you might want to seek guidance, check LCDs for workshops and meetups.

More QM in Portlandia

2011-03-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

I met with the CFO today, starting from an old geocaching site, the "man pointing", top of Mt. Tabor. She's been bouncing around, will continue to do so. I appreciate the Alaska connection, which our CHR shares, in a different way. I'm glad she's found family.

I hope I get to AK at some point. That Hubble guy had gone there, to some edge of the Universe kind of place (it's all "an edge" when you're a cosmographer like that).

Some bristle when I, a founder of DENSA (by my own accounts), start yakking about IQ. Am I being sarcastic? With regard to CSN, there's a kind of IQ test going on, with some getting in on the ground floor as we speak. Or call it the Doppler Effect.

Or are things heating up in 97214, birthplace of the Silicon Forest? I told her about our live in exchange student ("torture taxi" refugee) and the new work / study program I've embarked on.

Wanderers was interesting tonight. Steve, for some time a ward of the state, is back to his quantum mechanics (QM) teaching, trying to make it accessible to high schoolers.

Just using bra ket notation gets him some kudos with our Silicon Forest crowd, though we had our registered skeptics, as usual.

I gave him Rhett's number to follow up on some of those Bell Theorem interpretations. Maybe it could be a comic book? We'd need characters, and not just the usual suspects.

Earlier, I'd checked into Wired (Conde-Naste) to read up on that anthrax scare, which claimed some real lives (not "just a cartoon"). Advances in bioinformatics resulted, as people learned more about sequencing that lethal bacterium.

The Russians get blamed for stockpiling in Siberia, though they could always take the "just making vaccine" defense like the Americans do. Nasty toxins like that have a Matrix feel about them, their handlers a lot like those men in black.

I'd also picked Mental Floss from the rack, but a meeting with the CSO kept me moving.

Now, I need to attend to my queue. This may be one of those up-all-night working times. It happens. The service industry. Red Eye flights.

Good hearing from Sam, Dawn's bro, while I was walking by Portland Energy Strategies (Patrick was joining us for the QM talk).

Movie Making

2011-03-13T17:18:00.000-07:00

The movie Nirel has been working on, to be shot in Europe, would likely feature this starlette.

The script is only loosely based on Nirel's adventures. What's more important, they've hit it off. "She is a single mom, dancer, martial artist and skates" writes our CTO.

I'll save names for later.

I proposed myself as a cameo (maybe many), always wanting to be an extra somehow.

Storyboarding LCDs

2011-01-05T21:47:00.000-08:00

The above figure, by David Koski, developed in a Java application called vZome by Scott Vorthmann, shows several polyhedrons (polyhedra) sharing vertexes (vertices).

They are color coded for discernability.

The yellow lines, for example, form the diamond faceted rhombic dodecahedron of special interest to Kepler.

The green lines form an octahedron, the red lines a rhombic triancontahedron (30 rhombic faces).

Their volume ratios are as follows:

Red rhombic triancontahedron : solid cyan cube :: 7.5 : 3.
Yellow rhombic dodecahedron : same cube :: 6 : 3.
Green Octahedron: 4.

These ratios are not in lowest terms and the last "ratio" implies 4 : 1, with 1 being our unit of volume, a tetrahedron of edges 1 CCP ball diameter (the tetrahedron is defined by four inter-tangent balls of equal radius).

These computations relate the above shapes and ratios to an additional set of polyhedrons, three having the same shape as the red one above, but with different relative volumes: 5, 5.00+, and 21.21+.

To have a rhombic triacontahedron (RT) of volume 5, you need to shrink the 7.5 RT's volume by 2/3 and therefore all its linear measures by the 3rd root of 2/3.

The resulting RT's radius is very close to 1 (0.999+), assuming the diameter of any CCP sphere to be 2.

The shaded blue line labeled "mind the gap" is about the tiny difference between the T-modules RT and the E-modules RT, each "module" being 1/120th of its respective rhombic triacontahedron.

:: click for larger view ::

Jitterbug Perfume is an allusion to the book by that title, by Tom Robbins, but also to Fuller's operational adaptation of that word, a dance style, to the twisting-contracting motion whereby a skeletal cuboctahedron might be formed into an icosahedron using six additional equi-lengthed edges.

That icosahedron, combined with its intersecting dual, the pentagonal dodecahedron, its "wife", "give birth" to yet another rhombic triacontahedron, phi bigger than the E-moduled rhombic triacontahedron, or phi to the 3rd power bigger by volume (phi being the golden mean or golden ratio, pronounced "fee" by some, "fie" by me).

Again in terms of our unit tetrahedron of 4 CCP spheres, this larger (or "super") rhombic triacontahedron has a volume of 15 times the second root of 2.

The E-mod rhombic triancontahedron "phi down" from the super one, has a radius (body center to face center) identical to that of the CCP spheres.

To summarize:

Four rhombic triacontahedrons have been discussed, with volumes 5, 5+, 7.5, and "over 21".

The 5 and 5+ are very close to the same volume ("mind the gap") and are each exploded into 120 tetrahedral modules, the Ts and the Es respectively (E for Einstein or maybe "explodes", T for triacontahedron).

The T-module RT has a close relationship with the red one up top, the 7.5. The T-modules have volume 1/24, identical to that of the A & B modules, which build the other shapes (besides the red one) in the top picture.

The E-module RT has a close affinity for the "jitterbug" RT, the one that embeds the 18.51+ volumed icosahedron, with edges equal to the diameter of the unit-tetrahedron-defining CCP spheres.

CCP = closest cubic packing, the same as the IVM or "isotropic vector matrix" when comparing scaffolding or skeletons. Architects may say "octet truss" for the same space frame, studied intensively by Alexander Graham Bell before Fuller got a patent for it.

Motherboard (meeting review)

2010-12-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

Nirel's Adventures

2010-12-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

Tonight we adjourned to the Linus Pauling House (his boyhood home on Hawthorne Boulevard in Portland, Oregon), to listen to my friend Nirel (whom I haven't seen in ages) recount her adventures from around the world.

She'd started in Calcutta, with her two adult children, a young man and young woman, both beautiful, as she is, and rejoined with her yoga teacher, some hours outside the city, in a truly isolated area. After some weeks of this, they'd traveled to Goa by train, at which point the siblings went back to America, first the daughter, then the son. Nirel stayed on with her colleague. They were to work on a high end art book in Paris, about yoga and the human form.

Her adventures took her onward to Paris then, followed by Athens, the Greek islands, Amsterdam, Italy, Norway and then home (I'm abbreviating the trajectory, which was more of a pinball machine). Her culture shock upon arrival in Paris, after months in India, was severe, though she ended up loving Paris too. Italy, arrived at by ferry from Greece (some stories there), was beyond charming. Milano, where Bruno began, was in full fashion.

Her photography is superb and unvarnished, with special attention to signage, iconography, how they do hygiene. She's an inveterate anthropologist and loves humans enough to not weary of these journeys. This makes her lovely to be with, and it's no mystery why she has so many friends around the world, true admirers and fans (myself one of them; I wave to all of you others).

I left pretty early after the talk, wanting to buy Tara some tea. The venue was packed, as one would expect. This was a highpoint of 2010, I have to confess. I wish Tara could have come (she was definitely invited), and Lindsey too.

Walker got hit by a car again, at night in a crosswalk, light in her favor, and is pulling yet another all nighter at the DIY bike shop, getting the tractor bike back into shape for the big adventure. The front wheel was destroyed.

As some Cult of Athena guy, let me just say I feel surrounded by enlightened souls, praise Allah. These are amazing human beings (among other animals).

Speaking of other animals, they're kind to cows in India, but not to dogs so much. Bhutan seemed friendlier to dogs to me as well. Lots of anthropology here. Lets show Best in Show in Calcutta sometime (note to ambassador), also Goa?

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

:: TG 2010 (CIO, CTO depicted, photos by CMO) ::

We're closing shop for a few days.

I've got some business meeting notes tacked on to the end of this post to Synergeo, in case you're looking for more CSN history.

Welcome back Nirel. I'm pleased they're planning to make that movie of your adventures.

I'll be staying with our CIO and his family unless the roads are impassable.

A Belated Happy Halloween

2010-11-04T21:14:00.000-07:00

:: click for larger view ::

Family and friends, including businessman / adventurer Sam Lanahan and chairman of Python Software Foundation Steve Holden, shared a Halloween dinner on Hawthorne Blvd (aka Asylum Avenue). We then adjourned to our respective digs. Kids came to our door.

Say, that Visible Warrior campaign and/or student exercise at Cleveland High, was enticingly relevant to our digital portfolio/transcripts, where you log what you're for (pro) and against (anti) -- not that those are the only two possibilities (segue to "precession" in Synergetics).

Imagine a transcript that said you were "checking out" (as in "examining") an issue or cause. That doesn't define whether you're pro or anti, just that you cared enough to delve into it. In terms of game play, instead of a high score, you might just have a "played it" check box (a short experience of some kind, perhaps interactive).

Yes, I'm somewhat implying your transcript is human-readable, which for the most part it probably would be. That doesn't mean you can have encrypted parts, or levels of access. You have some control over who sees what, a feature of the environment called privacy which we value in other contexts as well.

Since my last entry, I've been attending GOSCON, which was some about the new Electronic Medical Record. I yakked about my NoSQL "scrap book", with lots of meta records by doctors in "connect the dots" mode.

What I noticed at Free Geek was a paucity of open source fund accounting software. You'd think a Foundation or two would have gotten together and made it a reality by now. It'd save so much on charities, if they didn't have to keep buying the same bookkeeping software over and over. There's probably a lot of political pressure to keep an OSS solution from gaining traction, d'ya think?

Anyway, we're getting there. Launch date is still quite a ways away and we're already connected to plenty of game companies.

Subscriber Channels

2010-09-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

The edupunk movement uses open source course / curriculum materials as raw input to make these hacked, value added, channel streams.

I'm on the lookup for a channel suitable for such as Laughing Horse Books (and video collective): Obey Giant type material is part of the mixins (ala Shepard Fairey), plus recycling posters for past and upcoming music events.

A channel needs a good VJ sometimes, someone to break in with allusions and timely reminders. We're not just running what was stuffed in a can for this time slot, days or weeks back, even though many clips are golden oldie. The mix gets remixed.

I'm not against auto-mixing algorithms as some readers know though. The hypertoons archive comes with segue / bridge nodes organized by connecting-edge scenarios. These partially overlapping animations and/or live action streams of consciousness have a seamless quality, especially if tightly crafted to organize a namespace / reality, such as Uru. Geometry lends itself to teaching by hypertoon, as does Geography (a specific terrain).

My sources tend towards cartoon, some circus material. This relates to the carnival atmosphere of the original geekdom. There's also the underground comix aspect, the idea of superheros, goddesses, archetypal beings. Geography + Geometry. There's also the Martian Math angle, mixed with RBF's bluer lagoon (more Polynesian, with lots of dolphins and mermaids).

:: js inspects art book near Remote, Oregon::

A Fifth Tetrahedron

2010-08-24T01:35:00.001-07:00

A family of space-filing tetrahedra fill this triangular prism (as well as those next to it). Another vZome by David Koski based on research by Michael Goldberg and others.

This family is in addition to the four space-filling tetrahedra cataloged by D.M.Y. Sommerville in 1923: the Mite, Rite, Bite and 1/4 Rite (using Bucky Fuller's nomenclature).

Dr. John Belt, SUNY, Oswego

Operation DuckRabbit

2010-08-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

:: duckrabbit ::

Calling my project Operation DuckRabbit is somewhat new. I'm alluding to Philosophical Investigations Part 2 especially, which is about the gestalts we associate with meaning. Despite all that "meaning as use" stuff, the importance of showing (not just saying) gets lost in the shuffle if we forget about duckrabbits and other such switcheroos.

My contention has been (and continues to be), that serious-minded philosophers would do well to look at one of the important gestalt switches in 1900s philosophy, what has come down to us in 2010 as Martian Math, at least in my neck of the woods.

The appended link to Notes for Teachers sets the stage: imagine a tribe (sounds like Wittgenstein already), that doesn't consider the Cube to be its model of 3rd powering, uses the Tetrahedron instead (topologically simpler, works well in a ball-packing context).

We get right to the foundations of mathematics with such a consideration, plus we turn the key in what might otherwise be a locked (inaccessible, or perhaps verboten) branch of literature, much of it philosophical and contemporary in nature.

Operation Duckrabbit is about recruiting those schooled in philosophy to apply their understanding of Wittgenstein to this gestalt changing challenge. As the late Dr. Arthur Loeb would remark, crystallographers have something to learn from this alternative more 60-degree-shaped bias. Instead of orienting everything around the cube, other gestalts emerge and hook together -- if one works at it, deliberately fosters the requisite changes in consciousness.

I think we're nearing a time when literacy in Wittgenstein's philosophy will include the concrete example of Martianversus Earthling math, though the narrative may assume a different guise. A lot of fruitful investigations branch out from this tension, this unity-of-opposed-concepts, more than just one or two investigators might handle.

We need more explorers in this "geometry of thinking", seems to me. There are real world implications, as unlocking Fuller's treasure trove (like a pirate stash) is to unleash a cornucopia (the inverse of Pandora's Box). What better way to be a hero then? And if you're already well versed in Wittgenstein, well, you've already got an edge.

Kirby Urner
Oregon Curriculum Network
Portland, Oregon

Notes for Teachers
http://www.4dsolutions.net/satacad/martianmath/teacher_notes.html

Background Reading (a previous post to this list):
http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-wittgenstein-and-fuller.html

More about Martian Math c/o BFI blog:
http://bfi.org/news-events/community-content/martian-math-and-synergetics

Re: Operation Duckrabbit:
http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2009/12/duck-rabbit.html
http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-wittgensteins-philo.html

Filling the RITE

2010-07-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

by Dave Koski with vZome

Whereas I've made much about the Mite, as dissected by Fuller into A & B modules, as the most primitive space-filling tetrahedron without overt handedness, we do have another contender, just by those simple criteria (tetrahedron, no handedness).

Because of its all-isosceles triangular facets, the Rite's component quarter tetrahedra (apex at the center of gravity) may all be rotated into one another, and so are minus overt chirality.

Assembled from two Mites, the Rite is itself a space-filler, as is the Bite (the other of two tetrahedral Sytes). These quarter Rites would have a volume of 1/16, same as a half-Mite (or Smite we sometimes say, or "characteristic tetrahedron"), also same as a K-module or 1/120th of a 7.5 volumed rhombic triacontahedron.

D.M.Y. Sommerville's 1923 paper, Space-filling Tetrahedra narrows it down to the three Fuller yaks about: Mite, Bite and Rite, plus this fourth one.

This fourth one, a quarter Rite, is believed by Sommerville to round out the complete list of Euclidean space-fillers.

Whereas the Mite will assemble the Bite and the Rite, this final tetrahedral space-filler is not filled by the Mite.

On Wittgenstein and Fuller

2010-07-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Reprinted from the Wittgenstein Discussion Board, hyperlinks and graphics added.

"Mathematics hasn't been philosophy for 1000's of years Kirby, and in preparation to my reponse to Richard, Physics hasn't been philosophy for 100's of years." -- Robert Hansen

The context of the above remark is my ongoing thread about exploring alternative "foundations" in the realm of mathematics, drawing on philosophical work of the late 20th century.

Long timers on this list may recognize this as my pet topic. I am interested in language games that "revector" (change the meaning of) such basic words as "dimension" and "volume" -- not for all time for all people, but within one more sandbox or sandcastle on the beaches of possibility, another way to think and compute, design, get results, with a place in the sun.

We're talking about "forms of life" in other words, or call them "ethnicities" (the anthropological dimension is apropos when yakking about Wittgenstein).

The underlying plot line (you need one of those, to sustain interest and commitment) is that civilization got off on the wrong foot to some extent, in becoming so enamored with the cube as its favorite space-filling polyhedron.

We consider volume to be the product of three mutually perpendicular edge lengths multiplied together and assign a cube the role of "unit volume" as a result of this mindset.

To turn a 90 degree corner is to access a whole new dimension, making 90 degrees a somewhat mystical angle. Right angles are "normal" and to be orthogonal is to be orthodox (to believe all the right things). The cube is an ultimate bastion of conservatism, and to question its primacy is indeed to engage in a radical operation (or philosophical investigation).

This rectilinear beginning is now thoroughly taken for granted of course, gets passed along essentially unquestioned by one generation after another. It would take a rather willful and obstreperous youth with privileged access to education (e.g. Harvard) and a commitment to make a name for himself, to ever buck this trend. One in a million or billion might try this. Most would be quickly overwhelmed by the seeming hopelessness of their calling.

So yeah, along came R. Buckminster Fuller, born in the late 1800s, lived until 1983. He developed a philosophy which gave primacy not to the cube, but to the tetrahedron instead.

The latter is topologically simpler in having fewer edges, vertexes and windows (thinking of it more like a network than a "solid"). It's known as a "simplex" for this reason.

You may likewise use it to anchor a notion of 3rd powering i.e. volumetric growing and shrinking relative to linear growing and shrinking of its edges. Triangles may be used for 2nd powering the same way.

There's no logical reason that 3rd powering has to be called "cubing" and modeled as such. You need to get back to your mathematical foundations to "see" this -- as I've endeavored to do on several occasions on this list, in the spirit of Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics and Philosophical Investigations.

Assign the role of "unit volume" to a tetrahedron (a regular one) and some magical things start to happen. This shape plays well with others and although it does not fill space alone, it does in complement with an octahedron of precisely four times the volume.

Another tetrahedron, known as the Mite (volume 1/8) does fill space without complements (Aristotle was right, remember the mite -- a new slogan).

The cube is reintroduced in this language game, but with a volume of three this time.

The rhombic dodecahedron, which embraces the octahedron of volume 4, the cube of volume 3, has a volume of 6.

Simple whole number beginnings, not shared with any students in US elementary schools because the Way of the Cube is considered the only way, best way, and it's "my way or the highway" when it comes teaching math's foundations (the life form in question is totalitarian in that respect, Borg-like ("resistance is futile")) -- partly why math is often such a turn-off to those who think freely and creatively (e.g. artists).

It needn't stay this way, were "philosophy for children" to open more doors, challenge the dogmatists.

Yes, the current foundations are primarily dogmatic in their delivery, like a catechism. Philosophers could be chipping away here, restoring some mental flexibility, freeing us from overly straitjacketed thinking, a kind of paralysis that keeps us stuck, awkwardly trapped.

A few of us are doing that work -- a real uphill slog given how people glaze over at the slightest mention of anything "mathy". We obviously could use some more help. Consider me a recruiter for the cause then, looking for allies.

A favorite way to keep "tetrahedral mensuration" from making any headway in the current "devo" context (ultra dumbed down, ethically in the toilet) is to dismiss it as "trivially true" i.e. the mathematics is well above the threshold of "false" (cannot be falsified) but then it's just too easy and simple to merit the attention of high level guru-geniuses, the caliphate as it were.

Elementary school kids who might benefit from earlier exposure to spatial geometry with this newfangled approach, never get the opportunity. They don't even have a clue what they're missing.

I call this "verboten math" therefore, because people such as myself, Amy Edmondson (Harvard Business School), Ed Applewhite (CIA), David Koski etc., who put many years of work into this project, encounter mostly resistance and put downs, transparent delay tactics.

Fuller is still a frequent target of character assassinations, even though he's dead (especially because he's dead?). Once on the cover of TIME, he was more recently ridiculed in the same magazine for his ugly "lemon" of a car (so how many philosophers do you know who invented a car? -- another reason he can't be a real philosopher, like Hegel or Marx: he had patents and inventions (a huge dis-qualifier, by today's academic standards)).

Amy wrote a book (A Fuller Explanation) which Branko Grunbaum nastily panned, Ed collaborated on Fuller's magnum opus (wrote Cosmic Fishing about the experience (talk about uphill slog!)) and David Koski has mapped all of the Archimedean honeycomb duals to Fuller's more simply named and volumed "modules" or "cells" (among many other achievements).

I've posted a table of David's results to the Math Forum thread above, fingers crossed it gets through. My previous response appears not to have made it past the censor, was perhaps too vituperative in tone (par for the course on that list, but I'm held to a higher standard perhaps).

So where does Wittgenstein fit in again?

I think one meaning of "show" stemming from Tractatus days, relates to what in psychology we might call a "gestalt switch" -- except sometimes that gets too narrowly interpreted as a merely visual phenomenon, such as in the case of the duckrabbit, Necker Cube and such.

When LW talks about the world waxing and waning, from the perspective of the subjective viewpoint (in some sense synonymous with the world itself because that perspective or angle colors everything), he's talking about how meaning is "orthogonal" to facticity i.e. to the world of facts (of true and false). A gestalt switch or new way of seeing (feeling, being) may leave everything as it as, factually speaking, and yet the world has changed its meaning in some way. This relates to what we mean by Zeitgeist, as many people seem to come to similar realizations, or call them "currents in the collective unconscious" (lots of ways to talk).

I realize talk of "many people" may not sound solipsistic enough to fit the mood of the TLP, but by the time of the PI, I think we're looking for people who "breathe a different air" (to understand what's presaged).

We could connect to William James at this point, or any of a myriad number of writers more cogent than I on this topic. My core thesis about Philosophical Investigations and LW's philo more generally, was that it aimed to catalyze or induce precisely such gestalt switches (aspect changes). Hence: philosophy leaves everything as it is, contains no theses (except of a tautological nature), is about liberation from reflexive, unexamined habits of thought. It's an ethical work in other words (ethics = aesthetics, per TLP) and therefore religious in some dimension.

In the Fullerian world view, human beings have crossed a threshold in their ability to leverage eternal principles (nature's "rules of the road") such that they have the option to take care of themselves at a pretty high living standard, though that doesn't mean simply amplifying the wasteful and resource-intensive lifestyles of North Americans etc.

This ability to mitigate human suffering on a vast scale is actually within reach, from an engineering perspective, but at the level of perception and conditioned reflex, our language is keeping us imprisoned (would be the view -- a tough one to stomach, as so much unnecessary evil appears humanly contrived -- not so easy to blame the gods then, nor even "politicians").

We're still enslaved by the thought patterns of darker ages, and cling to older dogmas out of habit and a need for security. People don't like having their cages rattled. The idea that we actually could eliminate death by starvation from the planet is a huge threat to business as usual, which is entirely premised on 'never enough to go around' or 'enough is never enough' as they say in Over the Hedge (a fun cartoon).

Again in the Fullerian world view, getting more air time for tetrahedral mensuration was a "foot in the door" that would get the sciences and the humanities to open more of a dialog. He aimed to bridge that C.P. Snow chasm, seeking a common language for both sides to invest in. Literary critics want to read texts on many levels, not get too mired in "the one literal truth" (per Norman O. Brown). Fuller's text does not disappoint in this regard, yet the ability to grab literal meanings from his fish tank is still very much there.

Fluency with sciences and maths on the humanities side has the potential to skyrocket, given a philosophical language well stocked with core memes from those disciplines, organized according to some broad heuristics centered around syntropy and entropy as the countervailing tendencies.

Yes, you could see this as just one more metaphysics, a Neoplatonism we could say, but then doesn't every age need to keep upgrading and updating? Are such language games entirely dispensable, now that we've gone through a linguistic turn?

I would argue that "new ways of thinking" remain as relevant as ever, and that a lot hinges on our ability to remain flexible and non-dogmatic, not overly reliant on inherited mental habits.

Streaming SG

2010-06-19T00:49:00.001-07:00

SG = spatial geography and/or spatial geometry. Geometry and geography are hard to tease apart sometimes.

Mites making Sytes making Kites... did you get that for your iPad or iPhone? That might not be available in your zip code area? These fall in the silly screen saver category, yet make a style statement. You're saying you're aware and you're branding with SG. You some kind of Neoplatonist? Wear it on your sleeve why not (like Goth jewelry).

CSN will do free advertising, with permission, for certain artifacts, such as geometry toyz. Some of these might be available in the gift shop, to heroic high scorers (better than yesterday's score anyway -- as you compete against your former self, measure improvements).

SG about "tetravolume accounting" was high priority in 2010, with practically no one producing. Hollywood was pretty bone dry. What about Buena Vista? Catalina Productions? 4D Studios? We were casting about, looking for high grade math casters (like myth busters or even ghost busters in some ways). Fine Grind Productions was another contender. Portland Center Stage.

We were not trying to keep it uninteresting to adults. No sense being boring.

Outreach to children might be through a different label (more than one?). Branding provides cues, to parents, to choosy viewers.

CSN shops have choices, as to where to subscribe.

Think of Linux repositories. Where do you get your updates and upgrades? Depends on the distro some. Likewise with SG on those LCDs. Some like a travel theme. Others go for that techno-psychedelic look. Or make it a mix.

Some shops do a lot of their own mixing. Some haven't the time.

Interlacing Test Pattern

2010-05-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

Earlier in this blog, the CSN team celebrated the addition of the 7.5 volumed rhombic triacontahedron (RT) to our little zoo of inter-transforming polyhedra.

Most of our polyhedra are isotoxal, to find an arcane term for ya. Any edge may be transformed into any other by a series of rotations.

The 7.5 RT is measured as such relative to a tetrahedron of edges 2, representing the 2 unit radii of spheres in a closest packing arrangement.

The yellow rhombic dodecahedron (RD) depicted above, of volume 6, may serve as a casement for one of these spheres.

Its green face diagonals define an octahedron of volume 4, while its blue short face diagonals define a cube of volume 3.

The outermost cube, in consisting of 8x the inner cube, has a volume of 24 and is what we call the 2-frequency cube in Synergetics.

Synergetics, a philosophy (sometimes categorized as Neoplatonic), is a source for many of our streaming spatial geometry animations.

The above graphic was developed by David Koski using vZome, a virtual version of Zome.

As of 2010, we had few commercial outlets for these streaming mathcasts.

The powers that be were (on average) slow to relay this new kind of philanthropic programming through their networks, to hungry scholars around the world.

Two other RTs you might easily encounter in perusing our mathcasts: the RT of volume 5, with radius 0.9995, so very close to unit radius; the RT of volume 15 * root2(2), with edges 2.

Again, don't expect to find these volume numbers in any 2010 textbook. Tetravolume accounting has not been accepted by the mainstream. CSN traffics in esoterica, simply by virtue of the radical nature of its principal sources of content.

Non-Commercial Use

2010-05-20T14:07:00.001-07:00

I was alerted to the above video by John Driscoll today, as we met at Lyrik. We discussed the Sesame Street model as an inspiration for hypertoons, long-running reveries that explore a database of video clips, stitching them together in real time, and/or asynchronously.

Programmers may need to (or wish to) insert local content, interrupting a feed from some distant source. The Shop's caretakers having mixing powers i.e. editing responsibilities. What's going on in the neighborhood? Curious customers want to know.

CSN is not about surrendering local control to some imperial center.

Given this blog is "prefrequency" in the sense that we're sketching an open source business model, providing the prior art, I'm OK with showcasing "non-commercial use" segments.

When syndicating for the CSN network itself, compensating artists will not be a verboten concept, even though we're a philanthropic organization, a charity, a worthy cause ourselves.

As the chief marketing officer (CMO), I'm not opposed to being rewarded for my architecture (new circuit designs for motherboard Earth), nor for my hypertoons concept. My thanks to Richard Hawkins for early encouragement along these lines (I entered a contest to win a Sun workstation, didn't win).

Dr. Nick has been educating me about the work of Mark Lakeland, local activist. The intersection known as Sunnyside Piazza is due for repairs. City Repair has scheduled an event for May 29th. This intersection is not far from Duke's Landing. Expect some photographs.

Meeting with CSO

2010-05-19T20:38:00.001-07:00

Glenn (CSO) was perturbed by a petitioner in front of Fred Meyers (these days Kroger) today.

The petition was to help public schools, he was told, but the fine print revealed the plan was to stick a casino in some abandoned school, thanks to some amendment to the state constitution.

There seemed to be a lack of truth in advertising in this approach.

This triggered more discussion of the CSN model and the degree of state regulation that might be needed, in Kerala or wherever.

In a USA context, I can imagine vendors stipulating and/or designating a set of recipients (charities, worthy causes) as a way of positioning their own brands. Some of the obscure beer companies might take greater risks, with the causes they might support, leading to loyal followings among some specialized breeds of game player.

Not everyone supports Greenpeace, or even this or that religious group.

Could a local temple, synagogue, church, mosque and/or meetinghouse benefit from CSN infrastructure? The current model wouldn't forbid it, but local regulations and community standards well might. That's the thing about CSN: it might be more malleable than you think, or than your neighborhood might permit.

The basic model has vendor payloads, already tax deducted (if that notion is applicable), and heading to the CSN pool.

When you boot a game, thanks to some purchase of product X, you have possible objectives A, B, C. Choose your mission and be a star.

If you're quite new at the game or just practicing and score really low (perhaps intentionally), most if not all of the payload returns to the pool, available to future players (perhaps yourself).

If you advance through several levels, the causes you're wanting to benefit will be more highly compensated.

When you cross a pretty high threshold, then the vendor takes notice and celebrates your achievements with offers of branding on your Facebook account or wherever you're storing victories.

The last wrinkle is somewhat subtle. We don't want vendors begrudging players scoring high and committing payloads to chosen charities.

That's because these are charities the vendor set out to support, an original purpose of CSN being to benefit worthy causes.

In between, the CSN circuitry permits public participation in exchange for vendor goods and services, combined with support for the venue (the shop nets a percent for its operating budget).

One reward for taking an indirect route like this is the valuable psychometrics coming back from the field. You learn more about your customers, in aggregate or by studying their public-facing accounts (as would anyone). That helps you fine tune. Feedback is valuable.

Coffee shops will distinguish themselves by what assortment of vendors they've got, and therefore what beneficial purposes their games might support.

Not every vendor wants to spend time researching causes or lending its name directly to NGOs. In these cases, the Shop itself may be selected for the company it keeps. A vendor seeks trusted peers in the philanthropy business.

The model actually presumes give and take, cues from the field, shifting positions. When a vendor gets feedback, perhaps negative, for not supporting a specific cause, that's not a crisis or break in the system. That's what psychometrics are for: to give the Shops a clearer picture of where the customer base is at, vis-a-vis this or that issue of the day.

A separate aspect of the CSN business, though related, is the "reverie" streaming of curriculum materials. I mentioned the Periodic Table, cuts to other topics. Lots of artistry will go in to some of these.

How much goes for product placement in the sense of advertising is a part of the equations.

As someone who looks at marketing, I like to send my own logos across sometimes, adding my brands to segments I'm proud to be associated with. The idea of branding, of logos, does not offend me, though a particular logo or brand well might.

In your typical casino, the game is players against the house, with odds tipped towards the house. One may also play other customers in some games.

I'm actually not posing as a casino expert.

If you yourself are a worthy cause, i.e. you have the ability to play for credits to yourself, then the game has that casino-like flavor. On the other hand, if you have some control over where your losings go, once they become part of the casino's power to invest, then you have a different angle, perhaps that of a tribal elder.

In the CSN model, you invest your own funds through purchases of goods and services coming from vendors.

If the good or service is the game itself, rather than a perk for having put credit towards a class or course, then this too is more like casino gambling, where drinks and food may be off to the side and free of charge, courtesy of the management as it were.

These being Coffee Shops, the idea of procurement, with games more optional than the whole point, takes us away from a strict casino model.

However, if "the self" is a possible beneficiary, then perhaps some state regulations apply (depends on the state). Perhaps we're in Python Nation? What then?

My inclination would be to see some CSN facilities as non-profit schools, such that "credits to self" were seen as credits to a student working for privileges, access, opportunities to practice. Faculty are students somewhat more advanced along some specific path. The work/study model (of a scenario) still applies.

Some of these courses may be hard work, quite demanding. It stands to reason that one might find compensation of various kinds, and not simply for "being lucky" in some game of chance.

However, given the planned-for relaxed atmosphere, a more strictly controlled test-taking center might be required for some parts of the schooling. Other environments besides that of a Coffee Shop will be a encountered -- a truism.

Not all kinds of study are possible within some CSN venue.

On the contrary, NGOs recruiting personnel through CSN education programs will be showing or simulating environments outside the Coffee Shops domain.

This is what it means to prepare for assignments: you may study in a CSN venue, but you're preparing to do something else... the possibilities are myriad.

Buzz About Shops

2010-05-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

I'm with Patrick of Portland Energy Strategies, yakking about what used to be Acme (see below). LinZ (handle) is a mini-Hubble when it comes to FreeCycle pianos, tracking 'em as if they were guide stars. I joined her in a rescue the other day, a perfectly good upright. How good was it when we were done with it though? Trae and I flipped her on her back to add wheels, and all her chords sounded when we did that. An expert I talked to said probably no big deal, he'd done worse. We had a legit piano dolly and everything, pictures in Photostream.

That same place with the piano (not Acme) is changing color again. Trae wants to continue a cross-hatching motif to signify his ownership of both buildings. Beyond that, he's like some fin de siecle painter, posing the question "why just one trim color?" He's settled on about four shades of turquoise, to contrast with the four shades of brown. GS and I interviewed him this morning while on some random walk (we're both Wanderers). Duke (the dog / owner) is doing better.

Speaking of dogs, the dog Manga in Logicomix out of Athens is not named for the genre, as Manga is also a Greek word meaning something like "jolly good fellow" -- or something.

The graphic novel I'm referring to is about the philosophy of mathematics in an historical context, exactly the kind of thing I promulgate on the Math Forum. This is Cult of Athena literature for sure, good table top reading (thumbs up, recommended) if you're collecting for your CSN shop.

My thanks to Trevor Blake, the renowned Bucky Fuller scholar (Esozone, Subgenius etc.) for cluing me in. I passed said novel on to Global Matrix Studios this morning.

One of the artists on the Logicomix team had experience with Tintin and Babar comix, both childhood influences. I sometimes refer to Don W. as "Captain Haddock" borrowing from the Tintin cast.

I've been out of touch with CHR etc., as we're not seeing a lot of philosophical ferment in the departments yet. University coffee shops will be streaming the content, but not until they see the relevance. OLPC commercials at the MIT Student Union? What could those have to do with 1, 12, 42, 92...? A puzzling question I realize.

Best wishes to JF, SB, LV, GS and to CTO Nirel. Praise Bob. CMO out.

More Cues

2010-05-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

Fig 1: an IVM cube

Fig 2: centers of rhombic triacontahedra (orange)
and rhombic dodecahedra (yellow)
of relative volume 7.5 to 6.0

Fig 3: space-filling rhombic dodecahedra
in a checker-board of cubes

Geometric studies by Dave Koski using vZome by Scott Vorthmann.

Acme Coffee Shop

2010-04-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

Smart Bar LCDs

2010-04-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember the "smart bar" phenomenon. I was out of the country, never made it to Goa or wherever the headquarters was. The Coffee Shops Network, in being about philanthropy, is more about heart than mind in some ways. However, those LCDs need a steady stream of interesting content, more than just "weather, news and sports" -- we need art.

The "science-minded reverie" is an emerging genre. Video dissolves, plus my hypertoon thing, suggest a stream of consciousness or dream-minded state. Assuming the ambient noise of the shop provides sound, we assume no narrative "glue voice" to explain what we're seeing. In a theatrical context, we might have a custom soundtrack. The version behind the bar might be a re-cut or shortened version of what's available in full length.

During this morning's meeting near Mt. Tabor, I proposed anchoring many of the reveries to a concentric hierarchy of polyhedra. The five Platonics contain their own duals. By a process of combining these duals edge-wise, the rhombic dodecahedron and triacontahedron get produced, of 12 and 30 diamond faces respectively. The cuboctahedron, so far not produced, provides the stage and setting (like "the holodeck" on Star Trek), is more the backdrop than what's at the center of the action. Carving the rhombics into four tri-rectangular tetrahedra to produce "exploding diagrams" and other effects, creates additional fractional components, called "modules" in much of the literature. Other transformations apply -- I'm not aiming to be exhaustive in this context. Art schools will teach you this stuff. Golden cuboids etc.

Other reveries might center around the Periodic Table of the Elements. We might likewise look for and stream visuals regarding similar summary patterns at the nano-sized level, per Dr. Tomolia's suggestions.

Reveries drawn from nature will of course be among the most popular. Computer animations of sub-visible and/or purely conceptual phenomena need not monopolize.

CSN patrons sipping their coffees, teas, juices will have spaces to converse, LCDs in the background, unobtrusive with sound. Casual viewers will be reminded of chemistry, mathematics they might have learned, animals of the forest, flowers and their names, some information about them. Resting your gaze on one of these monitors will definitely provide you with information, sometimes teasers for longer-running specials you might want to order for more private viewing, where you could add more sound. The information may bore you or not be anything you care about. You are free to look away, to return to your philanthropic enterprising, your conversation, your drink.

Polyhedron of the Month

2010-02-23T12:46:00.000-08:00

Here's an analysis of the 2-frequency truncated rhombic dodecahedron by David Koski.

rhombic dodecahedron (6) and cube (3)
in a zonohedral dissection of the
truncated 2F rhombic dodecahedron (45)
by David Koski using vZome

same shape, truncated rhombic dodecahedron

with square and non-regular hexagonal facets,
tetravolume 45, different viewing angle from above
(a vZome by Koski)

CTO in Paris

2010-02-17T16:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the update Nirel!

Wonderful to get some pictures from India.

Note to readers:

CSN's chief officers form a voluntary, philanthropic association of catalytic and effective individuals. The whole is more than the sum of its parts. Synergetic R Us.

Upcoming Event

2010-02-10T14:17:00.001-08:00

:: poster by James Jameson ::

Future Projections

2010-02-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

I've been going over use cases with a pro in the business, former owner of the Venetian Theater in downtown Albany. The profit margin on coffee shops is extremely thin, especially if you subtract adult consumables such as mixed drinks, which most shops do not offer.

The budget for start ups will have to be for advertising, with the vendor beneficiaries winning the good will sweepstakes, for having taken some initiative. The games will be family friendly and we probably will not have those adult beverages, except maybe in the usual segregated areas, more like Spaghetti Factory in some ways. YMMV. Depends on zip code quite a bit.

What's on the LCDs is what matters most to some of the stakeholders, and we expect to find alcoves, diversity in tastes. Not everyone is studying the same topics or cares about the same things. Geometry cartoons featuring classic polyhedra, no matter for what product (if any), have their own cultish following. The NFL has another, partially overlapping fan base.

From the sound of it, one might expect universities to jump in, say the MIT student union. Screens showing hypertoons have that geeky aesthetic one would not be surprised to encounter, if wandering Cambridge or Woodstock (near Reed).

I have also suggested a military lineage, in that some mission-accomplished watercraft, equipped with great kitchens, might retire as tourist attractions in a next chapter, while prototyping whatever kind of philanthropic engine the management has seen fit to test out.

Some aircraft might go this route as well. Serving people in their seats, without leaving the ground -- the model for many a restaurant. Some who fear flying, might get used to it this way.

Decisions do not bottleneck through me praise Allah, except in the few venues where a management team might include me. Like with Visa, there's no uber-boss, plus I'm mostly just wearing a marketing hat (CMO is my title).

The sharpness of HDTV is something else to think about. They change the atmosphere considerably.

By this time one may have asked whether religious establishments might use this same infrastructure.

Many a monastery had and/or has a vendor aspect. By contributing jam, beer, honey, cheese or whatever goods to the local economy, in barter for wine, exotic beans (or whatever other provisions not obtainable through tended fields), a religious establishment was creating a market niche for itself, creating one or more brands.

This mixing of temple and commercial trade is/was not frowned upon in principle, across multiple branches (denominations) so long as the products remained benign and prayerfully considered (incense... special remedies). Putting any surplus into wise disbursements, as a result of concentration and study, is what religious academicians do as well as non-religious, however self-labeling.

The community service nonprofit (or NGO) is a close relative of the religious establishment, another arm for social service. Many lawmakers would rather have government not compete with more private players, whereas others see too much privacy as a source of abuse. Either way, one could see where a philanthropic institution might partake of this status.

In an effort to reach customers where these customers want to be (at sports bars for example), these market leaders will need to test working prototypes, fine tune. We already have many examples (e.g. BackSpace and CubeSpace). The payoff will be getting into the game early, in an adjacent space (close to sports bars in some ways, yet different).

My Cult of Athena memes were meant to guide an aesthetic. The Oracle of Delphi escaped Apollo, meaning these are relaxed venues, not too spartan. Read back in the archives if curious. This is a philosophy blog, is not just about business.

Coffee Shop Schools

2010-01-30T23:22:00.000-08:00

cooking school in cyberia

GENI.org geoscope

zonohedron by Dave Koski

Bookkeeping Cartoons

2010-01-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

I'm at Muddy Waters listening to an afternoon performance by Amy Bleu while communicating with Saturday Academy regarding this "future math" option ("time machine" theme, summer math camp).

Regarding the post below, re Adrenaline Week, there's this hand-drawn thermometer showing whatever funds have come in, but is that really sufficient? Obviously one needs to account for the pennies, show what's coming in, what's going out.

In the utopian future of philanthropic coffee shops, the story might be given a more visual form. If someone makes an earmarked donation at the point of sale, some control panel shows that amount going to that particular bucket, adding to the total.

Because this is open source software, geeks know this visualization isn't fudged. These are real numbers tied to real accounts, and if you need the transactions in spreadsheet form, or as csv files, that might be arranged.

The model needs to be reconfigurable. Running a fundraiser for the house is different than hosting a teach-in and committing the funds to some worthy cause or charity.

Having the books in "cartoon form" is what CEOs and CFOs hope to get as well -- some synoptic colorful visualization that shows clearly what's going on with the company.

That's a difficult challenge sometimes.

Coffee shops might be able to pull it off though, given the relatively simple business model.

The software should be replicable to multiple shops and not completely ad hoc. Economies of scale enter in.

As CMO for CSN, am I able to write all this software and put it on line? Are my Python visualizations LCD-ready? Do I have all the Javascript written and ready to go? Nope.

I've been harping on this idea of more game-like front ends for bookkeeping systems for quite awhile now. Yes, it's a great idea.

Given the TV-soaked world we live in, I'm thinking a tilt towards the graphical might rescue the lexical. Making money management a kind of video game is not a waste of bandwidth, it's a way of including the TV-literate public.

Absent transparency, fundraisers tend to fizzle, as do the organizations behind them.

Amy Bleu grew up in Hawaii and plays a mean ukelele. She's donating any proceeds from sales, of CDs or T-shirts, to Muddy's. Maybe the thermometer will go up a tick.

Adrenaline Week

2010-01-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

Forwarding from Myspace, regarding a coffee shop in SE Belmont area, Portland, Oregon:

Muddywaters, a non-profit work owned coffee shop, that supports independent artists and the underprivileged is having a benefit event all this week. They just opened their new expanded music and art venue out back called "Flipside", but after pouring all their effort into it they have fallen short on rent and have to pay it this week or they are out. We are inviting any musicians that want to play to come and help us rock this house. We have all kinds of different fund raising going on, but we want to invite people to come out and check out the space and support it. We are scheduling musicians from noon to 10PM everyday, and after that the amps have to be unplugged and we go acoustic. If you want to play, email lindseywalkermusic@gmail.com or cojo23@gmail.com. If you want to support a truly equitable socially just space come out and party with us and tell your friends. Muddy's has had dinners for the homeless recently that fed over a hundred and have had events to benefit the homeless. Lets give back to Muddy's when they need us. You know Liberty Hall just closed down and we now have another space at risk. Lets save this space and start a movement going back in our direction again. Muddy's and Flipside are on the corner of 29th and Belmont.

Come out and lets have a good time, or let us know if you want to play and lets rock this place radical style.

A Quaker View

2009-12-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

My ideas for philanthropic gaming, making casinos a funding source for worthy causes, is not so far off in the case of native American casinos, which have been committing receipts to youth programs, salmon habitat restoration, scholarships for tribal members. Given my Quaker affiliations and this sect's historical alliance with original Americans, I'm more of a regional casino booster than some of my Christian peers.

However, the CSN design is rather different from the traditional gambling casino's. It lets players exercise choice when committing funds through these computer systems and uses a portion of vendor profits (donated back to charity) as a funding source.

The traditional gambler is directing winnings to himself or herself, with losings going to the house (as house winnings). The socially responsible gamer is committing a vendor-provided payload to a worthy program and building a track record. The vendor receives various metrics regarding giving patterns, sharing glory with the players.

Well designed games have the potential to build brand loyalty and repeat patronage.

The Oregon Lottery is another example of funding going from bars and taverns across the land into state coffers. Players have no control over what happens to those funds, as they're considered "lost" (no longer under patron control).

As of 2009, many misanthropic gaming systems still serve as recruiting tools for purveyors of anti-social, violent lifestyles. The idea of using games as recruiting tools is worth keeping, even if we switch focus to philanthropic engineering.

Economic Theory

2009-12-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

Left over from "artificial persons" days, when corporations worked for us, and not the other way around, the more profitable engines would plow surplus back into the community under the assets column of "building good will". These assets could offset some liabilities, thereby contributing to net worth.

One way of building good will was to simply donate to charity. Keeping good jobs available in a local community is another way to earn loyalty for one's brand. If a company earmarked some profit for charity, this could be claimed on tax forms as an alternative to government spending i.e. the artificial person could do its own earmarking.

Flash forward to the present day and you have ways to track nickles and dimes to the micro level. Charitable giving might be packaged to ride with a sale item as part of the payload, feeding a point of sale game system that encourages customer participation in charitable giving.

The company may pre-select targets in board meetings. Customers have a choice of games (as well as products) plus the option to let the charitable donation funnel to a default cause or charity.

Given this is turning into another description of the CSN business model, let's raise the objection that all of the above could be accomplished from the comfort of one's own dorm room i.e. purchasing on-line and getting to donate a portion of the profit to charity shouldn't require leaving one's chair (I've been getting that objection lately).

Answer: this is correct however it's not either/or. The CSN framework is suitable for use in a coffee shop setting, is geared for a kind of study hall environment (various degrees of freedom pertain, per other sketches). Some people are not looking for more time home alone and would welcome observing others at play.

Back to theory: we have "anonymous giving" in our model, however when it comes to building good will, both companies and individuals tend to want some way to make a link in the public mindset, thereby building brand loyalty and/or individual reputation. Having one's heroics as a game player on record is somewhat the athletic model, with sports champions role modeling their dedication to a walk and a talk.

Thanks to advances in record keeping, giving customers a way to scroll their play records for world-readable display is not an impossible undertaking, as it would have been just decades ago. These displays then become a part of the social networking currency, as parties seek each other out based on mutuality and/or complementary agendas and objectives. New companies form by this process.

Study Hall

2009-12-08T03:39:00.000-08:00

This work/study track means plowing through the Laughing Horse collection at a high rate. It's an opportunity, a window. 4D Studios, connected in my own mind to the Portland Knowledge Lab (a collection, an archive, for more studios than just mine) has only so much time to compare notes.

Today it's The Times of Harvey Milk, the documentary, not the recent movie. I've seen this before but a long time ago and I forget where. Also Crisis, by ABC TV, about the breakdown of apartheid in Alabama under pressure from Kennedy brothers.

This latter has a lot of amazingly good and candid material, a testament to the professionalism of the film makers, who obviously had the trust of the an inner circle cast of political players, including the Alabama governor George Wallace.

The two students were perfect for their roles I thought. The guy's quip that he'd like to be governor someday as in "yes, I'm your worst nightmare" was good humored and smart (what I don't know right now is how long ABC kept this film in the can).

The former is of course a landmark, award winning film. The scene where people are smashing into a building while the sound track shouts "no more violence!" was worth a rewind and review.

My local time zone has become less important given the realities of Cyberia. Sometimes I need to be awake at the same time as someone in the Middle or Far East.

Math 2.0, using Web 2.0 tools, puts emphasis on synchronous, not just asynchronous communications.

Duck-Rabbit

2009-12-07T17:53:00.001-08:00

Every philosophy blog should have one. Click here for more info.

Meetup on Games

2009-11-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

I had a meeting with the CIO yesterday @ Bagdad, talked about a specific multi-user computer game that encourages raiding one's neighbors for stores, kind of old school. For the first time in his life, he was feeling underhanded, like a cad. The game was providing this experience.

So how would a philanthropy game look? You'd have cities needing to thrive and there'd be competition with other programs and ideologies. If they lob bombs to keep you in the Stone Age, to make themselves look better by comparison, that'd be noticed by the other players.

The US Army spent millions on a recuriting game that teaches teamwork and a hunger for army life. This is world game in a nutshell, though hell bent in some dimensions. Similar games serve to recruit others from their matrix, such as Uru, Second Life and Spore.

If wanting a reputation as a philanthropist, you might consider funding game development. Coffee Shops Network (CSN) is about supplying an ambience in which such games get played. One need not sit solo in one's office or den. One needn't be secretive nor furtive when helping humanity, although aspects of game play, e.g. outsmarting misanthropists, will have their sneakier aspects. Hackers have their ways and means.

Kudos or Karma?

2009-11-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

Whereas our little partnership DWA used to book keep for ISEPP, I'm no longer privy to many details (nor was I then, as Dawn did all the bookkeeping).

If you know of a company wanting to position at the intellectual forefront, inheriting through the Linus Pauling lineage, the campus on Hawthorne remains a golden investment opportunity.

I'm not a direct beneficiary except I do use the facility for meetings and accept ISEPP lecture tickets as my one perk for being on the board, thanks Terry.

I've always suggested Unilever as a partner, as in my own mythology that's like a benign EU conglomerate, a bigger Ben & Jerry's, plus I like those tetrahedral teabags, long story (by Lipton).

Tonight is Ignite, a special event at The Bagdad. I have a guest ticket courtesy of an out of town MVP, one of the speakers (tensegrity & robotics).

Wave to CTO in India, to all my peer Cs (chiefs).

Autobiography Night

2009-11-14T10:33:00.001-08:00

An autobiography is a subtype of travelogue, or vice versa if you prefer, and both tend to use the first person, by which I mean: an autobiographer usually assumes the role of the "I" when telling the story, which the listener will presume contains an individual bias, but doesn't begrudge, as we're each entitled to a point of view.

The "objective voice" in contrast, or third person, is more self effacing and authoritative, so is more likely to be challenged or critiqued by those disagreeing with the implied narrator's views. A typical autobiography will contain a mix of both, with the author shifting to more omniscient tones when needing to provide more context.

Not every coffee shop will want to program these circles, but we increasingly have customers prepared with five minute thumbnails about their lives. Onlookers who realize this is an emerging genre will get to work on their own.

The short versions are often distillations of the longer ones.

For example, here's a link to a family history with autobiographical components by Jim Flory. He and I have worked together around several Quaker events and have in common this attribute of growing up in the Philippines, myself as the son in a post-WW2 technical family doing development planning, himself as the son of prisoner of war missionaries (heading for China) in a Japanese internment camp in Baguio (the USA federation had some similar camps for those of Japanese heritage during this same time period).

In a kind of cross-roads coffee shop, with visitors from many corners, you'll get some exotic autobiographies and these will tend to tie together for listeners, as they come to see a common backdrop of history.

Do not underestimate the value of this opportunity, probably worth some energy and work on fine tuning.

If your shop keeps an archive on the web, remember to invite your guests to post links to their web sites. Sometimes a Wiki is the best structure, perhaps a part of the larger web site. Notice how Python.org includes a MoinMoin with volunteers tasked with keeping it updated.

Providing every customer with direct access, even via a guest login, may not be the preferred system i.e. a wiki with restricted access is not a contradiction in terms, never mind what others may have told you.

On Wittgenstein's Philo

2009-11-08T20:44:00.000-08:00

Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 8:06 AM, jrstern wrote:

> Especially as Kirby described it, a grammar can
> (or must?!) relate not (just) to words, but to distal
> objects, to the real, or at least intersubjective,
> consensus world. It is not the word "consciousness"
> that has a grammar, it is the actuality in the world
> of "consciousness" that has a grammar. Then, it is
> well if our linguistic grammars, and our use of the
> word "consciousness", correspond to the distal
> facts. Sean speaks of "assertability conditions".
> That may head in some problematic directions, but
> it's the same kind of concept.
>

I think Sean's use of "languaging" helps move us from noun-sense to verb-sense i.e. to a post nominalist sensibility. It's not that the word 'cat' and the thing (cat) are related as proximal to distal (the word might be on a distant bill board, the real deal in your lap) but that both have semantic value in a grammar.

For suburbanite Americans going to community college, maybe taking philosophy at night school (a prerequisite for foreign service at some levels), I might translate "grammar" as "lifestyle". I think they'd get that, and it's faithful to On Certainty's "form of life". Language games involve moving slabs around (of fat, of whatever), are not just quiescent stare-into-a-book activities. You may feel obligated to draw some line, making "chess pieces" be not language, with "chess notation" as language, but that'd be an artificial line, as in arbitrary, random.

:: the chess-board ::

I think most philosophers of language might agree that "pure language" has this "jagged edge" where it connects to real stuff. That's where Wittgenstein grounds his certainties, his arithmetic sensibilities, not in some cerebral "pure logic" we can never see or smell, no matter how hard we think about it. He's more like Nietzsche in this way, in keeping the senses, also vivid imagery, central to the thinking process, not just as sources of "data" (as in "sense data").

:: sources ::

Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 8:15 PM
[C] [Wittrs] Wittgenstein on Nominalism

From PI ...

"383. We do not analyze a phenomenon (for example, thinking) but a concept (for example, that of thinking), and hence the application of a word. So it may look like what we were doing were nominalism. Nominalists make the mistake of interpreting all the words as NAMES, and so of not really describing their use, but only, so to speak, giving a paper draft of such a description." PI, 4th, p.125.

Dr. Sean Wilson, Esq.
Assistant Professor
Wright State University
Personal Website: http://seanwilson.org
SSRN papers: http://ssrn.com/author=596860
Discussion Group: http://seanwilson.org/wittgenstein.discussion.html

Lessons Learned

2009-10-12T16:45:00.001-07:00

There ain't nuthin' like the real world when it comes to providing reality checks, is what I'm learning.

The coffee shop venue connotes meetings for business, minus tight scheduling, so no matter what time you show up, 24/7 if its staffed for all time zones, you would hope to find a quiet venue for some serious negotiations, no competing sound track, suspenseful or otherwise.

Venues like Good Foot and Back Space to some degree, sequester or segregate (not a bad word in this context).

Maybe there's a loud music venue for those needing to unwind and/or various caves for video game playing etc. (sometimes with headphones). The business class set, on the clock and/or on Skype to the home office, is not at all bothered by all the commotion in some bat cave, out of sight if not mind.

Small venues that don't have the floorspace to accommodate these diverse uses in parallel (simultaneously), may take a more sequential approach (asynchronous), using the LCDs to effectively display when "quiet time" will be over, when karaoke is set to commence. Art galleries may feature loud music only once or twice a month. Libraries may never.

In sum, I'm not about promising free strippers and drugs in every venue (it's not mine to give the blue light in most cases), but in other venues, that's sometimes what's on the menu. Or perhaps you've got bar credits thanks to your stellar world game playing, so technically the goods are more in trade than for free. Your mileage may vary.

Some coffee bars cater to minors, others don't. The TV-rating system applies, not only to the stage magic, but to what goes to the LCDs (if they've got any).

The ambient culture has only a few paradigms (templates, grammars) to blend from. Following Python as a model, an eclectic computer language, we're free to pick and choose ("cherry picking" is a sin when doing statistics, but not when collecting antiques or memorabilia, art works, examples of esoteric crafts).

You've got the tavern, sports bar, coffee shop, video arcade, art gallery, strip club, country club, eating club, gift shop, TV studio, science museum, public eatery, inn, bed & breakfast, back office, library, VIP lounge... Victorian salon.

Branding in this phase space requires serious attention to your market niche, and that means having a clear sense of your clientèle.

You can't be all things to all people, nor should you even set out to please in this direction. If you're attracting young families with children, maybe you want a play area, for kids who wish to escape adult conversation. Portland has its share of brew pubs working this model and doing a good job of it.

Clear markings on the doorway aimed at scaring off the complainers, who won't like what they find, is a proprietor's responsibility, as well as a kindness to customers. People who weren't warned often feel justified in acting offended. Learn your community codes and post the relevant warnings (e.g. no minors permitted), not just enticements. Use eye candy to repel, not just attract.

Don't pretend your welcome mat applies equally to everyone. Be gracious with tourists however, as that's how to increase your fan base, should such be your goal. Establishments with no protocol for serving first timers, customers semi-innocent of a shop's culture, are likely to whither on the vine through attrition. Having too many people packed into a confined space is in itself a disincentive (a turn off), not to mention a red flag for the fire marshal.

It all boils down to truth in advertising. Give a clear sense of what you deliver at your venue, and then deliver it, consistently, whatever your secret sauce (value added). If you attract too large a crowd, don't be shy about throttling back on promotion. There is such a thing as too much advertising (also called over-exposure).

A Coffee Shop Show

2009-09-20T22:25:00.001-07:00

:: shot out ::

:: photo shoot ::

:: cooler than you ::

artwork by James

Traitor Joe's?

2009-08-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

[Note: the last time I talked to a Greenpeace spokesman I was told Trader Joe's had complied with Greenpeace requests and no boycott was any longer being encouraged. I'm fine with shopping at Trader Joe's myself these days, after refraining for well over a year -- KTU on Feb 2, 2011]

I've been getting a lot of questions about this, more in the mail today, and my answer is always pretty much the same: as CMO, I don't dictate to shops about sources, about vendors.

I'll state my own preferences and practices, with showcase shops backing up that it works (i.e. I walk my talk), but it's in the spirit of competition i.e. you might show me, against all odds, that your mix of vendors is of CSN caliber. Hats off to ya then! (a willing gesture of admiration and respect -- not edict-enforced by naked emperor types).

On the philosophy circuit, I've been suggesting a Politics of the Organs series of publications, looking at how people have changed their discourse about guts a lot. The brain has become really important since its "air conditioner for the blood" career (some truth in that, however metaphoric). Remember how the pituitary gland used to be core in philosophy? Or was it the neighboring pineal?

Anyway, you get the picture. Phrenology was a harbinger of modern day brain talk, even if only a quack science in large degree (it might have helped spread the use of helmets, some other beneficial side effect, so don't expect a long rant from me against such a dead-already horse -- life is short).

Having a book circle meet in your shop would be excellent, thinking of Laughing Horse here in Portland for example, where some of us go sometimes, also In Other Words on Killingsworth, where I represented as CMO for this network.

If they sit there with Kindles or like devices, toted in tote bags, riding on bicycles, we wouldn't diss them for that. Street youth have smarts sometimes, weren't all just born yesterday even if they look like it sometimes.

Anyway, back to my original point, go ahead and shop at Trader Joe's, without fear of any reprimands from me. I go to Fred Meyer's (a Kroger chain) even where others are boycotting out of principle. I enjoy free spirited debate across these kinds of lines.

That's all Congress is doing, getting paid to do it, professionally. I'm envious.

I often think about public figures with some sense of awe and appreciation, as I would about star NFL players if I were really into NFL (sorry guys -- but I do get it sometimes, like the half time thing (including Ms. Jackson's)). I watch military people too, phasing over into paramilitary. Who can blame me for watching the circus? Isn't that why they call it a theater sometimes?

Graphics Library

2009-08-03T22:38:00.001-07:00

A library of a different type (see below) is in software. People don't want to re-invent the wheel at every turn and have a well-developed practice of passing libraries back and forth, value adding, developing a common set of tools.

This doesn't keep our coder girls from competing with one another, just the shared library levels the playing field plus heightens the level of play, so everyone wins, even if sometimes one loses.

The OpenGL type stuff I've been yakking up with my students is capable of driving the 4D video games I've been marketing. 4D in this namespace means "friendly to the enterprising of Bucky Fuller", who tended to brand his work 4D, with sound mathematical reasons for doing so.

My 4D Solutions has developed additional resources in this same area, but mostly in the form of "cave paintings" (defined more on edu-sig at Python.org). Full scale FOSS libraries develop within communities of co-developers, using tools such as Mercurial and Git. Some of our philanthropic games will derive from this work.

4D IVM and 3D XYZ have a lot in common, with the latter dominating in the 1970s, defining a signature rectilinear look. You'll recognize 4D from its signature space frame, the octahedron-tetrahedron truss (the long winded name for it).

Stacked fruit is a typical hallmark, both triangular and square based. Also watch for Morley's Theorem to crop up here and there.

Building a Library

2009-07-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

see article

Both Terry Bristol and Allen Taylor have been generous of late. Glenn took me on a tour, showed me the emerging inventory of books and magazines. These aren't your average boring textbooks, although a few in the mix may help with the alloy, by providing contrasting summary information in academe's fave formats.

Nirel, thanks for letting me promote your work through the OS Bridge slides, which I went over again with Wanderers the other morning, glad to have Lindsey to my left, an accomplished CTO type in her own right. HB2U BTW, you and Suzanne are about the same age.

The new owner of the Pauling Campus coffee shop around the corner said OK to my patching in with wireless to blog about Art's talk. It's weak but usable and LPH's higher bandwidth wasn't serving for some reason. Said owner was one of the MVPs at Local Lounge on Friday evening.

Fine Grind is doing a Japanese circle and new art opening. Best wishes on those plans for a deck.

Pets as Gifts

2009-07-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

:: emperor with no clothes,
Disney character, via Kipling ::

Inquiries about giving out live animals, including with award ceremonies, need not be directed to some nebulous CSN "global hub" as we really care more about local community standards, are more like Ben & Jerry's in that way (Unilever). Pet policies cannot be set from on high, by some emperor with no clothes (see above).

Given the high cost of fuel, running empty is a waste, and lots of salt water aquariums could be heading into Kabul, feeding a growing network of tropical fish huts in that area. If the local coffee shops wanna jump in, who's to stop 'em?

Remember when Keiko got to ride on a military type aircraft, or at least cargo freight? Keiko was the star of Free Willy and needed to see the world, especially Norway. Likewise, staff in the Iraqi version of Sea World might want to move around, rotate. A few hours in a saltwater tank can't be that bad, if done right. "Take her through Manas!" could be the order of the day.

Extracting heavy weapons takes time, so as long as we have "air ships" running both ways, lets stock some shops, get that stimulus happening. Christmas in July is blatantly about civilian gift giving.

Greek Mythology

2009-06-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

:: python for teachers, slide 34 ::

Given our transparently big investment in Polyhedra as connotative of both civilization and rational thought, you might assume we're an Apollonian enterprise, whereas the idea of a "philosophy bar" (aka salon) sounds rather Dionysian and therefore oxymoronic.

How will our customers stay focused and rational if they're becoming intoxicated on adult beverages (e.g. Jack Daniels) or whatever?

Before answering that directly, let's remember that Apollonian intelligence was preceded by the older Delphian network, for whom the snake was an emblem. These oracles were rumored to get high (intoxicated) on fumes emanating from the rock itself (or from some tripod). In other words, this was an ancient shamanistic cult of medicine women, spearheaded by Athena.

When Apollo decided a hostile takeover was in order, or at least a rebranding, he chased the "dragon" out of town, killed it or whatever (accounts vary), and later Athenians got used to the idea of this more policed way of life (Apollo was more fascist in some ways, although not exactly another Mars, like in Sparta).

This so-called "she dragon" (a spirit) was named Python and so these good Delphian priestesses were likewise known as Pythians (like Pythonistas). The word "python" traces to the verb "to rot" i.e. the fumes might've been sulfurous or at least nasty-smelling ("a witches brew").

No one ever suggested these were unintelligent or unprofessional women, even though use of intoxicants was a part of their job description. They just weren't Apollonian in outlook, at least at first, so in hindsight it's understandable why the uninitiated might assume a purely Dionysian operation. Hephaestus was more Vulcan though, an engineer really -- talking about Python's dad.

Answering more directly: it's not a given that any particular customer will remain in a proper frame of mind for whatever business is at hand, nor is it the responsibility of poor slobs in management to carefully monitor everyone's intake.

Whereas the entwined snakes of Hermes, or mono snake of Aesculapius, suggest a "heal thyself" philosophy (akin to the Socratic "know thyself" maxim), this is a commitment for each individual customer to undertake, not a job for some Big Brother on steroids, not a job description for some psychiatric nurse Ratched ala One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.

Of course we'll do a lot with the LCDs around these themes, including in our own commercials, but let's not overlook the fun of having real, palpable mythology books on the shelves, so-called "coffee table" tomes (more expensive), along with childrens books, scholarly hardcovers, Marvel comics or whatever.

Carrotmob Helps Merchants

2009-06-21T20:31:00.000-07:00

:: carrotmob, summer solstice ::

It's almost happening! Invite everyone! To all guests of Carrotmob storms HOTLIPS Pizza!

The final push has begun! The event is in only 6 days. Put up lots of posters!

If you still want to volunteer, let me know by Wednesday when you can work (which shift, preferably: 9:30-3 or 3-9). We especially need people with trucks for setting up (9:30-11) and tearing down (7 PM onward).

Also, don't forget to invite all your friends to Carrotmob on Sunday!

Thanks!
Tim

Race for Justice 2009

2009-06-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

:: fundraising for st. andrew's legal clinic ::

CSN thanks "Chuck" Ryan, also Anna from IT, for including me in this charitable fundraiser.

Rear View Mirror

2009-06-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

:: os bridge, 2009 ::

OS Bridge Conference

2009-06-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

We're sharing some of our marketing strategies at OS Bridge, a way to promote socially responsible gaming (and Python) as a means of community service i.e. a mode of working (and playing) more women might appreciate (a theme of this slide).

For more context, here's a link to the PDF version of the entire presentation (6.5 MB), where our open source business model figures in passing (we have lots of imitators already).

Followup: so I attended Gabrielle Roth's talk on this very topic of women in FOSS, her local "code 'n splode" giving techy women some venting time to compare notes on various outrages and offenses (men are allowed, but don't get to sit in front). She gave a thumbs up on the "FOSS covens" meme, part of how the witches are beating the priests in the "good works" department these days (sorry Charlie, go whine to the Pope if you have a problem with that).

Interesting group dynamic in that this gay guy in the audience they all knew assumed interrupt privileges, even after all those slides about directly countering such privilege-taking. He tried to hijack the speaker's workflow during the Q&A, an explicit no-no. I shushed him real loud, like "hey, loud guy!" (finger across the neck motion). I might get in trouble for doing that, but hey, I'm a guy, so who cares.

Speaking of group dynamics, apparently some OSCON 2007 BOF on Women in FOSS kind of degenerated, still part of the lore among this inner circle. I wasn't at said BOF, dunno what went down, but do think of OSCON 2008 as a turning point in some ways, in getting us back on track vis-a-vis our core motivation (world domination).

Study Hall

2009-06-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

from Ira Flatow's Science Friday: snake locomotion

Some of our more youthful readers are thinking this is just boring old study hall, dressed up with scones and/or Brazilian cheese bread (yum), and they're right in some ways.

In today's world, we somewhat assume you're carrying a personal headset, so if you don't want to buy new or share the communal pair, simply jack in with your very own (like the ones in the seat pocket in front of you, that airlines just give away sometimes (but we lose them, rat pack the garage)).

The overall effect, even with all that frenetic game playing under the surface, winning big time for your teams, is a somewhat hushed environment, meaning you have room for intimate conversation without shouting. There's a buzz. Sometimes there's a didjeridu (and not just on headphones).

However, it's also in error to posit one steady ambiance for all times and seasons, as a shop has a life of its own, its rhythms, and you're not going to see the same Harry Potter types at all times of day (considering "a day" to be "one 24 hour period"). Maybe it's karaoke night and your customers are singing their hearts out.

If you have multiple CSN hangouts, you'll get a roving loyal base, with the quieter types frequenting the less loud locations, nothing to stop the Trappists from doing one.

In terms of Harry Potter, my little Slytherin group comes through only occasionally, in which case the shadows flicker and a film noir track kicks in on the sound system, activated by remote sensor (just jokin' with ya, adds to the tone).

Or more likely, I'm perched in the corner, more like Bob Cratchet, trying to makes sense to this scrooge Uncle Sam. Or am I more Mellville's Bartleby? Or maybe that'd be Matt?

Vendor Promos

2009-06-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

pioneer courthouse square (wikimedia)

I was scoping some venues for ISEPP recently, given the grant application on my desk, also wondering about PPUG given USB wants its upper floor back, maybe for investment banking purposes (Grand Avenue location, heart of ToonTown, sweet). Yes, this "tension table" (below) cries out for "weighty decisions" meetings, along with sake.

You may have seen, from archival Carosello reruns (RAI TV), that commercials earn good will for a company orthogonally to the product itself in many cases, i.e. the charm of the story is what left a good taste, not its relevance to actually shaving or sneezing or whatever the good.

Likewise the anime lead in to your promo needn't directly hype your cause, as we presume players usually come armed with foreknowledge. They already know about BFI and its campaigns.

The game is about having fun, R&R, enjoying some alternatives to violence (Quakers Play Quake).

Of course some customers abhor tasteless cartoon violence or first person shooters of any kind, didn't enter a coffeeshop thinking to yuk it up with immature 14-year-olds in some goddamn arcade fer cryin' out loud.

Lets acknowledge these stereotypes exist and take refuge in esoterica. Our hallmark games give you food for thought first and foremost, have their puzzling elements. Many are quite serene, more like Myst or one of those.

These aren't games of pure chance remember. Heroics come at a cost. Nor are all games equally hard, with some winnable in mere seconds (during a pause between sips, of a Red Bull or whatever -- a way to show off).

Others abhor hentai, pokeman, anything Xboxy... the list goes on, mix 'n match.

There's no sense "imposing" tastes, plus as any shop owner knows, you're also steering people away in some businesses.

Your clientele is in some ways your loudest signal as to what your little shop purveys and with CSN that'd be a philosophy talk of a somewhat esoteric, far western variety, one with lots of geometry, maybe hypertoons -- lookin' good on those HD flats.

:: urban grind, near jantzen bldg ::

Geometry Toyz

2009-06-02T11:38:00.001-07:00

I've talked about "the gift shop" a lot, sometimes in remote locations, high in the Himalayas maybe, in some national park. T-shirts would likely be specific to the region, with some mix of franchise motifs, e.g. Athena and pirates.

Given our brand of esoterica on the flats though, very spatio-geometric, it's the geometry toyz, ala Math 'n Stuff near Seattle, that really give us away as CSN. This presumes something about our clientele: they're philosophical, in the sense that geometry and philosophy have an historic alliance (like, read up on Neoplatonism if wanting to know more).

When you cross geometry with T-shirts, you get M.C. Escher, perhaps also on placemats. Your management has options who to buy from. Some don't stock T-shirts in wild abundance.

So how does the gift shop work with the games? On nearby Belmont we have Avalon, which gives a sense of the setup. Patrons buy an internal currency and their rewards come from behind the counter, based on success at the various games.

Greenpeace might set a business rule that when a patron scores a total of $50 towards that NGO, a free T-shirt gets triggered, perhaps from a catalog selection (visible on-line). Duplicate this arrangement another hundred times and you see where games might promote the flow of souvenir goods.

Given this is a geeks' circus, there's lots of attention to security, in the sense that a child working hard to help the polar bears, wants to know how this funding is used. Strong fund accounting on the business end is what gives patrons the sense of satisfaction, versus a bitter taste, when winning big for the cause.

Americana

2009-05-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

:: project earthala, work in progress ::

Recall the early days of CSN if you will (the time of this writing): a sick and twisted bunch was still bullying stoic Americans into no-win situations while the writings of a decorated cold warrior (Medal of Freedom), inventor and designer (architect, philosopher, cartographer), were kept away from most high schools by a jealous gulag professoriate, leaving us vulnerable to nightmare policymaking by these semi-secret cabals of uber-cowards. Not a pretty time.

As patriots, we fought back through self schooling, got ourselves an education despite all the censorship and refusenik anti-intelligence (idiocratic) biases. We formed our own networks, our own underground, complete with esoterica and lore, and CSN was proudly a part of that, helping rescue a great country from the clutches of the mendacious and unwise.

So yeah, it's OK to display the flag now and then, other patriotic symbols. That "Don't Tread on Me" snake is a favorite, ties in with our Cult of Athena theme (meme), given Athena's protector. Even if you're not an American, you're likely better off now that we're emerging from tyranny, have regained the freedom to teach our own heritage, make our own history.

Local Politics

2009-05-27T14:46:00.001-07:00

:: campaign to save cubespace ::

I'm uploading this picture from The Oregonion courtesy of Rick Turoczy's sharing through Twitter, geeks raising $5K in 24 hrs to save their office, upper floor of a bank building, devoted to coworking.

This is apropos CSN as our initial announcement of the 2012 release date took place in this venue, during a PPUG meeting.

This doesn't mean our talent can't be recruited from around other water coolers, but in terms of our story, as getting going in the original home of the Silicon Forest (East Portland), it makes sense to include this piece of it.

I joined a small meeting at Acker & Associates this afternoon, near PSU, got to explain the CSN idea in some detail, though what I was signing was not related. Then we repaired to Bread and Ink, home of the original Hawthorne Fred Meyer's. I was treated to pan fried oysters and two pints of ESB.

I shared more of our plans for world domination, a perennial geek topic, and bragged about my friends, both XX and XY (female and male). That's what marketing is, a lot of the time, plus picking up on hints, little bits of advice.

And now for something completely different, from today's NASA lore on Phantom Torsos (used to compare computer models to reality regarding radiation dangers in space), the piece by Pat Rawlings/SAIC:

:: distant shores ::

Memo from Richmond

2009-05-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

:: fine grind and environs, Hawthorne District, Portland ::

Running an art café in Portland takes G&G (guts and genius) of a certain kind, the hard work of sustaining working relationships, with vendors, artists, a staff, your customers, perhaps a back office. Not just anyone is cut out for such work. I'd probably last about a day?

Portland's business community prides itself on weirdness, especially here in 97214 around Hawthorne, the birth place of the Silicon Forest in some ways. We're home to some of the finest coffee shops in Portland: Common Ground, Chance of Rain, Fresh Pot, Pied Cow, a Starbucks and Peet's on opposite corners, plus a spanking new one just around the corner from Linus Pauling House, which I still need to check out (stay tuned).

When you're ready to jump in, I recommend Fine Grind as the perfect place to get the flavor of our homey yet cosmopolitan neck of the woods. I started going there when it was still called Wired, then watched Jody and her staff take it to new heights, then turn it over to this highly qualified (partially overlapping) team.

Keiko hails from São Paolo, loves life in a big city (Santa Barbara too small) and finds Portland fits that description (without the dreary uniformity of Miami say, with mostly chain stores). Yes, she knows about the whale.

Keiko works with Joe, a veteran of the Portland art scene, to bring some stellar, truly collectible pieces into our neighborhood. We are blessed.

Even if you're a professional gallery or sister café, don't feel shy about checking out this hub of activity. Compare notes, pick up some ideas. Help us keep Portland on the map as an art capital, not just a music capital.

From my perspective, Fine Grind continues to feed the "CSN grid" with memes and dreams, weaving into the mix, adding to our collective joy. It's clearly a philanthropic endeavor, a source of good will, a cornucopia.

If you're wanting to sharpen your Japanese, consider joining their language circle. Richmond school's nearby Japanese immersion program might mean some parents need practice. Keiko writes, of their meeting on May 6:

In this second meeting, as suggested, we will prepare a short introduction about ourselves and home (“katte”) and/or tell a story about a trip (“ryoko”).

Her Portuguese is even stronger than her Japanese, so that's another circle to consider. We need these all over town, in many more languages. Portlanders take lots of trips, have coffee shops to share them in, potentially (Costello's has a travel theme).

Speaking of community, this just in from Kimaster George:

HOTLIPS Pizza has pledged to donate 100% of their revenue for June 21 to energy-saving improvements in their store (hopefully solar panels, if we get enough money).

I presume he means the one on Hawthorne. This is a CarrotMob Project, something coordinated through Facebook. More details to follow.

Hypertoons from CSN

2009-05-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

If you're not averse to having an LCD running some ambient geometry in the background as a way to jump start your brand, we have some FOSS for ya, but you'll need a geek or two to install it and boot it up, or maybe you're a geek yourself. I'll write as if you were...

Grab and install VPython from Carnegie-Mellon or one of those, then grab my hypertoons generator, deposited at 4Dsolutions (we're like your memory bank of cool toyz).

If you want a podcast to preview, Synergetics on the Web has an example (narrated), or check YouTube for more.

Hypertoons are looping animation tracks with a network structure, such that you'll segue differently based on Python's pseudo-random number generator.

A hyper-audio track (matching or on its own) would be a logical next feature, feel free to start a project pointing back to its root. This isn't a visualizer, so don't worry about infringement (not a screen saver either -- wouldn't matter if it were).

You'll maybe be able to make your own hypertoons eventually, but for starters this starkly geometric one serves a didactic purpose (teaches philosophy), is family friendly -- is even interactive if your setup allows for controls.

You'll need some way to run Python. Maybe slave an XO to a ceiling mounted computer projector and shoot against some opposite wall?

I've not tried this particular option, am not sure if Vpython runs on an XO-1, plus why waste a perfectly good laptop for such a primitive purpose? Some junker with a gig of RAM oughta do the trick. Free Geek has those by the boat load (thx!).

Note: there's a stereo option but you'll need the special "glasses".

More on T-Shirts

2009-05-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

Remember you're free to sell beer shirts, especially these animal type ones, without having to market the beverage itself (think "gift shop"). Or you might have one brand in a can, packed in by grad students (grateful to be here).

Once you commit to beer, you'll attract a more ornery crowd that wants stuff "on tap" which means casks, refrigeration, a lot of infrastructure. Just point them to the beer joint down the street with a polite "this is a coffee shop sir and/or mam".

On the other hand, we love beer in PDX and if you feel equipped in that regard, don't mind lots of loud people, many of them politicians, then hey, go for it. Just be aware that Coffee Shops Network is not directly competing with sports taverns, as I've previously spelled out. We may also allow water pipes, although maybe not in the United States any time soon.

Yes, I know "more on" rhymes with "moron" -- get over it.

Thx to pirate TC for the images, from his personal collection. We had lunch under the Bagdad marquee, all seats sold out for Tom Robbins, author of Jitterbug Perfume and other favorites. "A smile flickered to her lips like a seagull flying out of a bowl of tomato soup" is one of his I remember.

Lunar Coffee Shop

2009-05-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

Wake up and smell the coffee -- on the Moon!
Science @ NASA, 2009.5.15

Given the high tech origins of our baked goods especially, it's not surprising we're thinking ahead. Depicted above, an artist's conception of a power source for coffee making (and other activities), designing for the NASA brand.

You'll note in the article that Stirling engines get used for power generation, a project my friend Andrew Frank has been working on right here on Planet Earth.

These are days of hard work for the NASA team by the way, Hubble's last makeover.

Rogue Nation Party

2009-05-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Those of you not familiar with Oregon won't know about our Rogue Valley and Rogue Ales, of which we're proud. There's been some talk lately of Rogue Nation as another name for Oregon, playing off our pirate heritage (Portland a FOSS capital, home of the Pirate Festival in St. John's).

In terms of decor, lets go with esoterica, per usual. As an aspect of foreign policy, I'm focused on Washington, D.C.'s role as a money funnel (aren't we all)? The sitting Senate in that distant city (not really a part of the Union?) has just approved $30 million for better air traffic control equipment in one of the "stans" (Kyrgystan). What were they thinking?

Continuing to dump fuel and equipment into that region with no stated goal other than to violate Pakistan's territorial integrity (another invasion!) and suppress religious freedom, while looking for handouts on the international lending circuit seems unsustainable, but that's why this is fun: let's watch all the clowning around, now that the spotlight is on 'em.

What will the pundits say?

There's not even a Coalition of the Willing this time, just a few scattered think tanks with funny faux thinkers (this should be good). Remember all that hoopla about Georgia?

I've seen the "drone piñatas" and think those will work. I suggest superhero literature scattered around, some Iron Man comics especially. Popcorn. Rogue Ales.

More About LCDs

2009-05-10T15:09:00.001-07:00

:: swwmc fireside shop & exhibits ::

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) already play a huge roll in our lives, with some science minded, such as Laurie Anderson (of Big Science fame) thinking we maybe have too many or too much of that already.

"I like paper, it's easier on my eyes" is what you will hear. "I like paper too, but with so much pressure on forests, I'm thankful we don't rely on wood pulp for the written word at every turn" might be a long winded answer. Plus when you get to animations, wood pulp falls apart.

Southwestern Washington Medical Center, world renowned for top of the line cardiology, other longevity services, has its Fireside shop LCDs quite literally set in stone. As one would expect in a hospital setting, the loop advertises the expertise available, reassuring to both patients and prospective patients (which includes staff). One wouldn't expect a sudden dissolve into esoteric geometry cartoons, unless perhaps featuring some of the other art in the building, which tends to be somewhat Far Western.

In the scene below (from a different shop in Oregon), the LCD is on a post at the corner of the counter. The default display is "instrument panel" e.g. note the mounting cost of having troops in Iraq (you'd think they'd get it by now and get out, but that's not how they think). You could dissolve to travelogue teasers, previews of what's on the larger screens in back rooms, but that's more the Backspace model (gaming), or Living Room Theaters, where we show documentaries, algebra prep movies, stuff for biology majors. People will book these venues in advance, sometimes with a comm link to the home office, more like at Kinko's or one of those.

Self Promotion

2009-05-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

An aspect of our "church bingo" model people sometimes object to is they think overtly taking credit for one's heroics is in itself rather self-indulgent and objectionable, is transparent self promotion (a bad thing, in their books).

My response is you're free to make your donations anonymously on occasion, but when building a semi-public track record, it's more about taking a stand, advertising the work of your target teams in the field more than just drawing unearned attention to yourself eating scones, geeking out in some way.

For example, a paradigm customer might be some 15 year old girl hell bent on making life difficult for salmon farmers off the coast of North America. She's seen some well made documentaries and is persuaded that these are "freak fish" that don't deserve our business. There's a special interest working this angle, some needle in a hay stack. No other customer is tracking this issue. In glancing over her record, the barista learns something about what kids today are into. Multiply this story many times, and you see how a useful buzz might develop, with philosophical debates and investigations at its core.

A behavior customers would be much more cynical about is posing as favoring this or that, but only to impress a potential date, while meanwhile, in some other shop, ten blocks away, there's a whole different track record on file, lots of mutually inconsistent heroics, all because in that venue it was someone else and so on. Nothing holds this character together, in terms of standing for principles, other than the "I need to impress someone" principle. This kind of behavior often rubs people the wrong way.

The CSN is more of a playground than a set of scripts. In providing the tools, setting some high standards, the games get to be engaging, worthwhile. But beyond that, how you manage your own identity is your business.

Speaking of which, I maybe made a mistake wearing the T-shirt below to the supermarket and bank yesterday. First, because this'd been my pajama top owing to a pre-dawn trip to the airport on chauffeur duty and second because it triggered lots of snarky comments, some overtly expressed, like that shopping cart couple I dodged on the sidewalk, said I didn't really listen at all.

Turning to popular culture and other stuff that I care about: a kind Friend phoned during commercial break to let me know Michael J. Fox was just about to visit Bhutan on channel 2. I dashed up three floors and with the help of an assistant, was able to catch that segment. Michael was in good form and yes, that's the Bhutan I remember, was happy in. Also: thanks to Facebook I'm able to be a Katie Couric fan from a distance. I don't know exactly where this helmet picture was taken, however I appreciate her as a constructive player and a pro (my friends are used to hearing me rave about various people I look up to -- that's just something I do). So what's up with Sri Lanka? Is India planning something? I've seen Windows7 in action, but haven't seen the new Star Trek yet (I'm planning on doing that though).

from Facebook

Cartoon Room

2009-05-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Some brewpubs in our area have discovered that having a "children at play" zone attracts the young family clientèle they seek. Of course not every shop serves the same demographic or zip code so read no further if under-age means not through the door.

Once in, you needn't imagine a passive viewing studio, kids glued to a big screen. In some toys, the LCD is no larger than a postage stamp, with MPEGs in firmware. Calling it a "cartoon room" isn't meant to inspire panic among the "kill your television" crowd. If you want your Lincoln Logs to actually be non-virtual, we have a special set in the back (just don't let her swallow any).

Again, it all depends on the shop, plus screens might be turned off during "quiet time" (e.g. Cubespace has "quiet cubes").

To change the subject slightly, we went to some "macaroni palace" downtown, very suave decor, but they had these huge wooden beams apparently supporting no weight, just suspended by metal cable from the ceiling, the walls supporting each end. What's up with that? If you need "big wood", at least make sure it stays busy, serves a real purpose. Or were they keeping the walls from falling inward?

If self schooling is the focus (is this an "edu-mall" of some kind?) then your toyz might be robots, the cartoons more like event driving GUIs i.e. instrumentation atop some device-level API. Add a Python instructor and you've got the beginnings of a kick ass school.

But then testing gets more controlled and in coffee shops we tend to shy away from severity. We define a safe hang out between visits to the dentist as it were.

That being said, you could still have a friendly coach, like at OMSI, and a gift shop, selling some of these same toyz, ka-ching (and a big bonus for some worthy cause, would you like a table sir?).

Art @ Fine Grind

2009-05-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

:: she's crafty etc. @ fine grind ::

Excellent all-woman show, lots of to die for art, I'll see if they let me stream any of it to ya, be right back... Yay, got lucky, here's a morning blend. Keiko did a more complete slide show (click here).

Ongoing Campaign

2009-04-29T15:05:00.001-07:00

today's email bulletin
click for larger view
order T-shirt?
more background

Gift Shop Ideas

2009-04-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

:: duck typing ::

Our troupe met in a favorite Westmoreland HQS, over Philadelphia (aka Quaker City) style steak sandwiches and red style beers.

Nancy Ankcorn regaled us with stories of being slythe and alone in Las Vegas that time, hit on left and right by predatory XYs, flattering but also hair-raising (mammals may be dangerous).

Our conversation meandered to casinos from many angles, Jon, a musician, having worked in one on the Utah-Nevada border, some town with a line down Main Street, gambling on the one side only. He enjoyed the experience (great carpet, flashy slots).

A problem in Oregon today: the legislature has properly banned the under-aged from dancing in strip joints by amending the law to say if alcohol is served then minors can't be on stage in any performance capacity, immediately killing the sympony and ballet, where many of the stars are well under 21. That's politics for ya, as smart as a Laplace's mechanical duck (OK, Vaucanson's) and his bogus brief for deterministic reductionism (thinking back to Terry's slides for Stu Kauffman (got me thinking of The Turk beating Napoleon that time)).

Given social networking practices, subversive subcultures will likely take pride in flaunting their patronage register i.e. it's not a "dirty little secret" that you've enjoyed practicing philanthropy at a CSN branch. On the contrary, that's street cred. "Smart people shop here" is how we look at it, not unlike the BFI gift shop's attitude (see right margin).

In other news, I'm curious which venue Ewa suggested for the Django conference in September. She's doing recon for CTE. I've started work on my OS Bridge slides, outlining some EduPycon track concepts. A conference goal: have the presentation machine running Jaunty Jackalope, meaning I need to upgrade from Hardy Heron through Intrepid Ibex. I'm working on this over the weekend.

portland barcamp 2008
legion of tech
(may 1,2 in 2009)

Targeting 2012

2009-04-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

"Is CSN a cloud computing application?" people want to know. Until recently, I might have said yes, but upon reading up in the blogosphere, catching some Pycon talks, I'm thinking we're also looking at open source hardware.

In my Py3K talk at Cubespace, a baptism for Jody, the model was "free if you want bare bones, extra if you want preloaded with vendors" where the latter are mostly local, at least half of them into organic gardening.

Jody was ahead of the curve in working with a community gardener, gave us the back story when celebrating John Lennon's birthday, a family event.

This was before my bidding on FoodHub (thinking Django) and Michelle Obama's strong forays in this direction. We're in an even stronger position today, in terms of promising home grown delicacies and healthier foods in school (and hospital) cafeterias.

More to the point: our students are becoming more aware of the full life cycle, developing more relevant life skills as a result. Home economics is making a come back... as a high technology field (you can't beat nature, when it comes to high tech).

As I've mentioned before, Fine Grind (previously Wired) is more a bakery disguised as a coffee shop, is also an art gallery. This doesn't mean it's lying about what it is, but that coffee shops may have a deeper side, especially in Portland, a city of esoteric back spaces, missing links, underground comix and geocaching, not to mention lots of old bookstores.

Some shops in Old Town may still connect to the tunnel system, from whence new salts were recruited. The "Chinese navy" needed a few good men now and then, where the verb "to shanghai" comes from.

In a more contemporary Portland, we still have our talent scouts and head hunters, and more often than not it's at meetups over coffee that some real deals get made (or over beers in some cases -- some people stay sharp sipping whatever's on tap, whereas others lose acumen even on ice water).

My DemocracyLab meetings, also that one with Mosaic, were at Common Ground on Hawthorne, well known for its fine rack o 'zines, stellar baked goods, with a real theater around back.

Sam Lanahan met me in Fine Grind, although he more recently joined us at the Portland Fish House, a few doors down from Linus Pauling House which he also frequents when not sailing the ocean blue (another captain, like Barry and Don).

I'm also quite fond of Costello's and Chance of Rain, as well as the two at 37th and Hawthorne: the Peets and the Starbucks, with Oasis and Bagdad for beer and/or pizza.

Uncle Bill and I go to Hawthorne Ale House, where we went with Carla and Sam, other close relatives.

Many of my turning point decisions were made in such establishments, can't say I'm complaining. I've recently added Coney Island to my repertoire (had a Paranoid beer), am planning to do a lot more with the new Fred Meyer's.

Back to CSN: the more ambitious prototypes need TV studio development with lots of designers present. I've got ideas about decor, as one would hope from a CMO, but I'm not the only stakeholder.

I've already tipped my hat to some of my influences, just to give a heads up: we like Tlingit and Chinook, look to family-friendly places like Kaneetah (Warm Springs) for clues. It's a two way street of course, or at least we hope it is.

Obviously, given Google App Engine and Python, I'm thinking in terms of developing a look and feel by that means, immediately solving the ISP problem.

However that doesn't entail any given local shop can't host a lot of its own code on some rickety old toaster farm. Customers like the smell of authentic geek aracana, which you won't have if you outsource everything to Canada.

My attitude: if they're wanting to talk to our API out the back, they'll do so, and in whatever language (XML-RPC? -- maybe just a standard DBI). Python on the server doesn't entail Python on the client, so go ahead and write and run Perl, have tables set aside for Perl divers wanting to show how it's done why not?

A lot of the games will be shipping in binary looks like, so we won't always know what tools were used to create 'em, nor do we need to know. Sysadmins have control over ports so games needing to chat with the outside world may need to accommodate modest CSN sandbox requirements.

We don't provide the Internet to just any random binary that comes down the pipe, plus we're monitoring the psychometrics ourselves, partly why vendors agree to supply a bonus with each payload (plus we're usually good for their image).

Like don't go to a CSN affiliate expecting to load all your own games, familiar from the "home alone" context. Many of our games will be exclusive to CSN. That's part of how we support our client shops, by following the Grateful Dead model: go ahead and copy, but remember, you heard it here first.

More Poly of the Month

2009-04-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

dissection of truncated octahedra into hexahedra
using vZome
by D. Koski

D. Koski has taken some of his precious free time, between hard hat construction gigs (he's an HVAC engineer), to spell out his game with the axes, with permuting hexahedra, applying it to our Polyhedron of the Month.

You get "more than one way to do it" (MTOWTDI) closer to the middle of the build-out, with fewer degrees of freedom at the start or at the end. Plus by the end you've got a lot of ghost zomes, flat against their faces. Takes time to go into, more details on the Poly list.

David's game with the multi-axis hexahedral buildout of zonohedra was influenced by The Rhombic Enneacontahedron and relations, a study which later incorporated some of his results. He used his analysis to tackle the great rhombicosadodecahedron (in which the above zonohedron embeds), which lived up to expectations in terms of connecting the right dots. More recently, he's performed a similar analysis on the truncated octahedron, giving CSN an insider track on his results (thx!).

If you're building these in vZome or what have you, consider going to a three frequency octahedron and truncating from there. You'll slice off six arrow tips, perhaps made from ping pong balls, or something similar. Remember your CCP is both a squaresville and a triville, depending how you slice it. Four balls in a square is your intersection set twixt neighboring 3-frequency assemblies (pre-truncation).

:: bubblz w/ ian @ atm conference (uk), post Pycon ::

sent by cell

Show & Tell Lounge

2009-04-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

Show & Tell Lounge is shorthand for a section of your shop that doubles as an ad hoc TV studio. Informal presentations, or formal ones, might be captured to file with this setup, blessing your establishment with a library of favorite hits, accumulating over time.

We've been testing this setup in the ISEPP Pauling House, having captured quite a few presentations to tape over the years. Pycon, from whence I've recently returned, opened my eyes to what money might buy. Not every shop needs the same setup. We're not a cookie cutter operation.

So say you have this rant you've been wanting to share. Sure, it's somewhat paranoid and esoteric. You'll have some friends in the audience maybe. Bring some slides, strut your stuff, walk away with a memory stick, upload it to Youtube? Google Video?... ShowMeDo? The hope is our customer will get a record, in exchange for scheduling a performance and delivering the goods. Shop staff get to screen by default, don't have to serve all comers. Try another shop maybe? Sometimes we're all booked up well in advance.

Again, a shop is a place to practice, to study, to share the buzz. We're mostly not competing with professional recording studios that do only this kind of stuff for a living. An off-Hollywood shop that goes further in this direction, one or two standard deviations, might even be owned by a studio. Here's a way to pre-screen while hosting a relaxing, less demanding kind of talent show, less judgmental, less at stake (at least from the studio's standpoint).

Customers need to know when extra cameras are running, as simmering down might be the polite thing to do. Ambient levels of surveillance, quite apart from karaoke, lightning talks, will depend on whether we're in a casino or not, on a cruise ship, other contexts.

CSN doesn't always know your precise circumstances.

Video summaries, suitable for public flatscreen review, would be welcome. I'll contact the Portland Knowledge Lab to suggest this as a new category.

Esozone Shoptalk

2009-04-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

:: shoptalk for self schoolers ::

Content providers for coffee shop flatscreens, pretty ho hum right? But do you get many good test patterns, showing off your esoteric tastes? I didn't think so.

What we're into at CSN: Mites, Sytes and Kites. Yes, they rhyme, and yes, they mean something (a volatile combination). American Idol move over.

The Mite: a limit case space-filler, no left or right handedness, except under the covers (yes, that's cryptic -- talking about A & B modules).

The Mite face-bonds, in three different ways (what is this, Sesame Street?) to make the Lite, Bite and Rite. And the Sytes, how do they combine? Into two kinds of Kite, both spacefillers, Kat and Kate.

Did I mention the Mite was a spacefiller too? What am I missing?

Primitive concepts organized in a memorable manner: welcome to explorations in the geometry of thinking eh?

So that's stuff on YouTube, or should be (could be).

Or maybe some other screen showed it first. At a corner shop near you maybe?

In a casino you say?

Remember, lots of smart kids are reading this, might get some ideas. Don't let that stop you though. There's always making 'em with paper (like origami).

Easy: just get each of the above rotating in place, reflecting light sources, apply textures, tune to taste. I should do it in VPython. I've got a Mite done at least.

What is this, a college geometry class? Something for art students? Yeah, sure.

Congratulations Keiko, on getting that window fixed, finally.

Fighting Fatalism

2009-04-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

:: statue of Jimmy Stewart, Indiana, PA ::

Whereas we're galvanized by all this spirited talk of ending the reign of nuclear weapons, so conducive to blackmail, we're confronted with opaque institutions that gobble money then smile, ready for more. Where does it all go?

Engineers relish the rare opportunity for greenfield development, starting with diagrams and blueprints, then manga code (prototyping), then some alphas, some betas, a release candidate, a rollout.

CSN is an example of such an opportunity, is a goldmine for FOSS bosses ready to commit to new concepts in the design of social networking institutions.

Our goal is to harness the engine of ordinary commerce, such as we study in Supermarket Math, and use that to fund field operations that require discipline and skills, are transparently about assisting humanity in some way.

The work is clearly valuable and philanthropic, and those tuning in with a spectator mentality, may find themselves drawn in as investors as well.

In directing your winnings to some NGO in the field, you're perhaps signifying your willingness to be recruited by these very same teams. GOs and ~GOs (NGOs) get data about player heroics. The games are designed as prep in some way, or some of them are. You sometimes play hoping to get noticed (the NFL / NBA model).

The US Army uses this same technique, so don't tell me this is pie in the sky. This is just how our culture operates: fantasies (TV), interactive cartoons (video games) and then some choice of career (and repeat, through multiple career changes sometimes).

It's more a question of what do you think is a more cost effective (energy efficient) way of achieving more sustainable and satisfying ecosystems. However you steer is likely to move you closer to the front lines in those institutions you most support.

"Front lines" has a negative connotation when the battles are hopelessly uphill, whereas "out in front" in a circus context might get you a date with Britney Spears. Context matters.

In green field development, we get to design what "the front" will actually look like. Perhaps it's a research facility, a clinic, a staging area for delivering medical supplies? The web sites will show you. Google Sketchup is a useful tool.

This is where investors start seeking a prospectus, a game plan. In terms of screen writing, we look for pilots, doable television, product placements. In terms of software, we're looking for geeks with vision, coding skills, driving skills, self discipline.

Do we find our new recruits at OSCON, GOSCON, or maybe through CSN, where heros leave calling cards, having aced their way through some puzzling fragatorium?

Capitalism's invisible army of the future comes out of the woodwork, when the ambiance (e.g. the coffee shop) is properly tuned ("capitalism" as in "using your own head", as in "doing your own thinking" -- borrowing from Bucky again).

Could the military become more involved in humanitarian work? Of course it might, as our response to the tsunami in Asia clearly showed. More typically "helping orphans" goes on as a side show, whereas the primary mission is to find approved applications for name brand killingry.

Large standing armies tend to become showcases for specific tool sets and skill sets, a kind of marketing force with machine guns for Tupperware (Marines as good girl scouts, Avon ladies at your door). If inventory piles up, unadvertised, start a new war for product placement purposes. Such is the "reality television" of our day.

When that glorious state-owned helicopter lands in your public school's football field, and the men jump out with their painted faces and guns, they're suggesting a possible future of don't ask don't tell fun and games on the job.

The civilian services traditionally get nowhere near this level of government funding, except for intelligence work, which most consider paramilitary in any case. You'll know things have changed when more civilian recruiters come to your school, from NSA for example, yakking about those fun computer camps in the Gorge (learn about RSA from the pros maybe?).

The day the State Department has twice the budget of the Pentagon, is the day you'll wonder why your living standards just doubled. In the meantime, prepare to stay poor and enlisted, perhaps assigned to a Middle East wasteland, rather than enjoying wine and cheese with your diplomatic counterparts.

Civilization without wine and cheese is inconceivable, whereas we were getting along fine without those nuclear WMDs. Putting the genie back in the bottle ain't that hard in this case. Dr. Evil types need those secret caves, like in Bond movies, which few can afford. Refining uranium is hardly an easy process.

Those caves already on the map are closely inspected, on the watch list. Cover ups require a high degree of loyalty whereas if the game is to build banned WMDs, you're likely to have moles with a strong sense of idealism. Defectors will spill the beans, rat you out. We saw this every day during the Cold War.

This idea that it's mindlessly easy to proliferate nuclear weapons is somewhat misguided, probably because Hollywood doesn't talk to the Scott Ritter types, doesn't care if it "stays real". We probably wouldn't have fallen under the spell of bad screen writing, had we a more sophisticated TV viewing audience, rather than an unruly mob with a diet of mostly fiction on Fox. Unrealism (escapism) is a kind of vulnerability. Predators take advantage.

So, are you yourself a dupe for those hot-headed nuke heads? Consider enrolling in some IQ booster classes, like at Cubespace or somewhere. Become more of a geek engineer, less of a fearful nerd. "Step into yourself", as we say on those posters. Get a life. Take some pride in your humanity.

@ Fred's

Save the Polar Bears

2009-04-03T13:49:00.000-07:00

Regardless of your views on GCC ("global climate change"), you might have the idea that we need to help animals, as our own net worth, not to mention self worth, is more than a little at stake.

"As you do unto the least of these..." -- did he only mean humans?

Even if the jury wants to stay out on the issue of human causation, we still have plenty of work to do (even compensated).

Should we organize an air lift, an air drop?

Either would probably make more sense than that Kyrgyz operation, that nonsensical spewing of fuel in some "war on nervousness".

Squandering oil to save it hardly helps keep us cool headed, exerts downward pressure on our collective IQ, resulting in stress, acting out, being mean.

Remember how happy the troops were when allowed to help out after the tsunami in Southeast Asia? "Finally, we're not killing anyone" -- what a feeling of liberation!

Yet we still had the best toyz, and even civilians could play. We needn't invite such disasters, we're surrounded by such challenges. On with the circus then!

Thanks to Green Room / Ops for a great Pycon by the way, and special thanks to our CSN CTO in Malibu for Operation Polar Bear (ongoing).

Also: way to go Denver Airport:

:: global warming is real ::
(click for Photostream context)

Featured Polyhedron

2009-04-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

by Leonarda Da Vinci

We take our Polyhedra seriously in Portland, our FOSS Nashville, likewise a place for music and publishing. Why? Because we're a Cult of Athena, which has commerce (B2B) with Apollonian and well as Dionysian businesses. More to the point, we have lots of flatscreen real estate, and nothing works better, as a fall-back or default, than some rotating omni-spherical object (like a test pattern), or maybe something more asymmetric?

The truncated octahedron is our flavor of the month.

My thanks to David Koski for bringing it up. Yes, it's a space-filler, and often associated with Lord Kelvin (of temperature scale fame) who conjectured about it rather fervently. Koski's zonohedral dissection theory likewise applies, although twas the "Great Rambo Head" which took more of his attention.

We talked about A & B modules again, which he sees as "boring" compared to the T,E & Ks. Five-fold symmetry has its appeal, I readily admit. And let's not forget Lucky Seven.

Now our hero is back to work in a hard hat area, keeping our energy grid growing. Stay safe guy!

Greetings from Chicago

2009-03-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

:: pycon 2009 @ hyatt, o'hare ::

I'm here representing the Portland-based Institute for Science, Engineering and Public Policy at a Python conference, having some key meetings with MVPs.

Some of our Wanderers have been taking another look at ecological economics recently (thanks again Trevor). If people asked how I got here, I could say "by surfing the solar gradient", but it's less whimsical to just say Alaska Airlines.

CSN is about "right sharing of world resources" as Quakers say. Each shop is a semi-autonomous "world game engine" for positive change, steered by its customers in cahoots with its vendors. Intelligent steering requires buzz, conversation, in addition to times alone.

Also while in Chicago, I'm planning to visit Starting with the Universe, the Bucky Fuller retrospective that started at NYC's Whitney Museum of American Art last year. It's now at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

I've studied the trains map again, see a close-by station. I was here last year for this same conference, with my two daughters. Then we rented a GPS-car and drove to Pennsylvania, to remember Dawn with her family. I often think back to that trip. Tara appreciated the small town of Indiana.

Where to go next with this project? Our customers might like to hear more of the history. We could invite faculty to lead some discussions. Tell us what you're thinking about? Help us steer?

I also like the idea of offering travel opportunities to those wanting to rotate among shops. One way to add to the buzz, make it more cosmopolitan, is through a staff exchange program.

Proprietary Games

2009-03-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

If you were following on the PPUG @ CubeSpace list, you might have seen where I suggested the games might be delivered by armored car direct from skunkworks, and loaded to DVD juke boxes, no copies made, binaries only, bootable on shop VMs (customers don't wait for bootup, if the game is already cached in the queue someplace, as more popular games will be).

This isn't to say all the CSN flagships even have a DVD juke box, nor have I anything against open source games (on the contrary). It's just that if a shop such as Valve, of HalfLife 2 fame, wants to bootstrap as closed source, you won't hear me grumping in the background.

In the ideal shop, every game could work with every bonus packet from every vendor, and for any worthy cause on the menu. Every permutation of vendor, game, cause would be equally accessible.

At least that's ideal in a simplistic sense.

In practice, some games will exploit a vendor's mythos (namespace), trademarked characters or whatever (e.g. Keebler Elves... Tony the Tiger), and you'll get to play if you buy the right mechandise to get started.

Check current vendor websites for more examples (usually minus the socially responsible piece, CSN still in the early stages).

Even with the bonus packet coming from the vendor through the point of sale, the donation to worthy causes is by the individual, the customer player, not the vendor, at least up to a point where you're considered a branded hero for that vendor, going the last mile for Mars, General Mills, Starbucks or whatever -- get a trophy for your collection? Some of those games are pretty hard to beat at the hardest levels [I suck at a lot of 'em -- CMO].

In practice, fine tuning the alchemy will be an ongoing challenge, as vendors map their stipulations, and game authors mandate their choice of outlet (much as artists might choose an exhibiting venue).

In terms of providing a trademark level of transparency, we think getting to view the circuits, how packets are switching and by what rules, should be somewhat open to customer inspection. The shop itself is a game engine of sorts, with a public API in addition to the more private ones available to authorized personnel.

Aggregate views need not be in real time, nor is anonymity at risk where promised in any well designed social networking framework.

Coffee shops needn't pander to every paranoia, but security and confidentiality remain legitimate concerns, worthy of ongoing focus and open source solutions.

The GNU environment wisely provides a lot of security-minded features, does not rely entirely on some "honor system" among hackers with skills, although ethics certainly matter.

Proprietary games may run in this context, but the plan is to keep such "black boxes" embedded within a more public commons, a shared space. Hiding all the internal workings simply "because we can" is not in and of itself a good reason for doing so. Customer loyalty stems from trust in the model, seeing it working.

Serving Buzz

2009-03-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

Coffee shops share a constructivist heritage in that here is where people congregate to compare notes and weave memes.

After WW1 in Paris, a kind of existentialism took root, as the devastated and war torn tried to reboot. The movie Jarhead makes a lot of allusions to this literature, which was insufficient to keep WW2 from happening. WW3 was at least colder in some dimensions.

If you're fortunate, your shop will have some networking pros, including on staff, Romany Marie types such as some of our CSN co-founders here (others more grumpy and back office).

"Meme weaving" or "dream weaving" or "day dreaming" (as in conversation, or as in just doodling and noodling) connotes politics. In Portland that means projects like DemocracyLab or the operations of PDC, Metro, PPS, the City Council... lots of players, takes time to surf the blogs, sample the buzz, before chiming in, starting to build a constituency.

Putting too many conversations into one space, plus doing some gaming, sounds like a recipe for pure hubbub, like Laughing Planet on steroids. But of course I'm assuming there's a virtual aspect to all this, that personnel touch base in the shops, through smalltalk or whatever, and then follow up over time, perhaps moving among the shops.

Larger and more programmed events are occurring off camera in this scenario, often in rented facilities, meeting rooms, at facilities such as CubeSpace on SE Grand, or at Lucky Lab on SE Hawthorne.

However, if your shop runs some communal LCDs, like at airports, then there's the option to telecast customer "business cards" as commercial shorts, cameos, accepting a fee for the service, perhaps in terms of accrued tokens on the gaming account.

Customers may also stream travelogues, not necessarily at a charge, with the corresponding web page pointing to the scheduled presentation, should such info be semi-public. Portlanders still travel a lot, come back with their stories.

:: portland barcamp @ cubespace ::

Boot Track

2009-03-19T07:57:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the boot track for Coffee Shops Network. Should Starbucks be worried? Maybe Starbucks could join?

We market philosophy, a buzz, and spread by academic citation, by URL, by footnote. One "becomes" CSN simply by talking turkey the way we do, and that includes helping your sister shops come up to speed, both in marketing and in getting those game tables going.

FAQ: "What if I don't want 'game tables' or 'flatscreen TVs'"?

This is more about the philosophy than any specific claptrap. An "all things to all people" approach is not good marketing. Esoterica is not about "safety in numbers".

In terms of buzz, this is a Cult of Athena branch-off, thinking of Nashville as a home in some ways, in terms of music. On the other hand, we're influenced by McMenamins, Backspace, Laughing Planet, Missing Link... Gold Door in Portland, Oregon. The game culture is brought to you by local area casinos, at least in terms of lighting levels and bling, so yes, there's a NavAm component, along with Pacific Northwest.

Visually, we're vested in "Neoplatonist eye candy" by which I mean the new kind of geometry woven in through this boot track. We connect to American Transcendentalism through Bucky and his great aunt Fuller, other co-conspirators (Marshall McLuhan... Barbara Marx Hubbard). We allude to the Apollo Project quite a bit, a tie to the space program. Our kitchens owe plenty to naval submarines.

Featured Artist: Lilymoth

2009-03-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

Lilymoth is a grown up goth who cheerfully and professionally trimmed my shaggy gray locks this afternoon, even though, on a spring day such as this, she might rather be in her garden, arranging these tableaus with her doll collection.

Originally from Detroit, she was entranced by Blue Meanies (Yellow Submarine) at an early age.

Her stag beetle tattoo is right at home amidst the foliage, some bones recently added, celebrating her becoming a grandma at 41.

Portland is blessed.

Travel Bar

2009-03-15T14:11:00.001-07:00

Oldest tea house in Baghdad,
where generations of
artists, writers, and intellectuals
meet to share stories and ideas.
(Photo: Dahr Jamail)

The word "bar" doesn't always connote alcohol as in the term "juice bar" or "candy bar". Likewise, some casinos don't feature gambling.

On the other hand, it derives from "barrier" and lawyers used it as something to get passed, as in "passing the bar".

The word "barrio" is unrelated, although barrio bars (neighborhood watering holes) are commonplace in many cultures, some of which do serve alcohol or other adult beverages.

A CSN franchise will be embedded within a cultural fabric. The choice of games will also vary, as some communities think nothing of vicious on-screen violence, whereas in others, LCDs exhibiting such fare would be considered either in poor taste, or only suitable for some sectioned off area.

Quaker-run bars might permit only twisted cartoon violence of an AVP variety, thought up in various think tanks, such as Pendle Hill's, maybe trade with the Unitarians some (unless this sect has some strictures against game-playing we don't know about yet ).

shop in pdx (photo by CMO)

Open Source

2009-03-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

The screen shot above is from an early simulation, not from any production code base. Study CSN Circuit Diagrams to learn more of the logic (business model).

The customer's purchase includes a bonus towards some game off the DVD juke box, and a worthy cause, both picks off the menu.

The house gets a take off the top, then the worthy cause (e.g. Greenpeace), with the bonus remainder returning to the vendor for potential recycling.

In effect, the vendor is letting the customer invest its charitable donations, thereby giving the customer identity-building ammo, itself an investment in good will (indeed, the customer may designate herself or another customer as a worthy cause, and in some gaming environments -- not just casinos -- this is actively encouraged).

:: FOSS in Vancouver, BC ::

Photographer's Corner

2009-03-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

:: alcove in Portland ::

:: twilight ::

:: multi-faceted ::

:: playground in Oregon ::

featured Photostream

Regarding Authentication

2009-03-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Astute readers will be thinking how LCD heroics might describe their latest testing experience, in terms of what feats of memory, of problem solving, were called upon.

Yet in a coffee shop ambience we seek more recreational learning, akin to a museum or specialty gift shop; these teach a lot about a culture, especially if geared for tourists, such as at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery, or Oregon Coast.

Those pointing out that ETS is still in the dark ages, whereas more colleges could be working in cahoots with the private sector, turning out any number of superior learning experiences, get CSN tokens for having visionary powers. Congratulations!

Even creaky old ETS might get back in the game, once it realizes the demographic potential. Like, who can blame private vendors for wanting a piece of the action. Tying point of sale events to customer identities (even masked, so long as the data is real) is the holy grail of niche marketing, and here we're establishing a collusive relationship between our paying customers and the very vendors who "spy" upon them. Vendor to customer: "we're in this together, in support of worthy causes, creating our track records, building our histories".

Given the relatively relaxed atmosphere at your average coffee shop, if junior wants to perform a miracle and snag a big bonus for a worthy cause, then turn around and credit that score to a friend or relative, that's not a problem. The software might have ways of "crediting to" (a kind of flag) but in general we're not so concerned about "cheating", don't bend over backwards to "verify identity" at every turn.

People know going in that our chaordic network is on average somewhat rough and tumble, a mirror for other "game playing" that might be more verified and button down (games for money, academic credit, other cred). Facebook provides a good analogy. You have the ability to wipe clean and start over, or tend multiple aliases.

On the other hand, some tucked away shop in an Alaskan fishing community, attended by regulars, might settle into semi-strict patterns, with identities kept intact over the long haul. These behaviors emerge organically. Back office programming is not the determining factor. Shops develop in their own way without a lot of top-down supervision.

Schools running the same or similar games and/or simulations motivate more practice in a friendly self schooling atmosphere, with more controlled testing environments implemented in these other venues. Stricter authentication tests will then apply.

Franchise Motifs

2009-03-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

Your paradigm coffee shop in our Coffee Shops Network is run by a bevy of networking types, our icon being Romany Marie from those long ago days in Greenwich Village. Fine Grind was and is paradigmatic.

Another thread is the large well-equipped bakery, lots of stainless steel, with the mythology that this comes from shipboard, from the naval tradition, those fast food kitchens being the "dumbed down" landlubber versions of the really good kitchens at sea ("think ney").

Add in the pirate motif, quite important, and you get female sea captains piloting our prototypes, helping steer computer science in productive directions, per our socially responsible business model.

Keeping the philosophy high caliber is part of the formula for success, and that expresses in branding and marketing. "What's a Princeton philosophy degree good for?" you ask. "Selling Arabica beans, Sumatran, Columbian..." and of course we keep a hand in the tea business as well.

Rumors that Bob Dobbs is our CEO are intriguing. Looking into it.

Res Extensa

2009-03-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

:: karl menger, dimension theorist ::

If you click on the title you'll go to the Math Forum, where I'm explaining to a pre-college audience about their non-Euclidean geometry options.

Sure, you're welcome to fiddle with the 5th postulate to get other self-consistent vistas, likewise suitable for exploration and discovery.

Those bothered by "dimensionless points" and/or perhaps more drawn to the "atoms" of Democritus, will be happy to learn of our "geometry of lumps" under development since at least the 1940s (the histories will vary on this point).

Karl Menger's proposal segues nicely with later explorations, and our practice of calling all shapes "4D" in res cogitans, 4D++ in res extensa (which latter we've associated with "energy" ever since Einstein (energy has shape)).

The key paper was in an anthology on Einstein's relativity: 'Modern Geometry and the Theory of Relativity', in Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist , The Library of Living Philosophers VII, edited by P. A. Schilpp, Evanston, Illinois, pp. 459-474.

For further reading:

About Karl Menger (Illinois Institute of Technology)
Small World (Grain of Sand, Aug 11, 2007)
Claymation Station (Grain of Sand, Oct 3, 2008)
Re: 4D vs. 4D vs. 4D (Coffee Shops Network, Feb 7, 2009)
Proposal Re: Di mension (Grain of Sand, Jan 12, 2009)

Egoistic Writing on 4D (Synergeo, Nov 27, 2010)

Marketing CSN @ Math Forum (math-teach, Dec 23, 2010)
STEM and Euclid's Geometry (math-teach, Dec 26, 2011)

CSN Circuits

2009-03-02T21:30:00.000-08:00

The vendor contributes a payload plus bonus, where the payload is some good (such as tea), and the bonus is towards an LCD game, soliciting patron heroics (a challenge to perform, per some system for scoring).

The default is for the entire bonus to return to the vendor, but a typical game will reward the house (shop) simply for loading the game, like that free 200 on your SAT, just for getting your name right.

The next few levels feed your chosen worthy cause, picked from the coffee shop's list of available beneficiaries (or vendor's list as the case may be). "Like church bingo" said Glenn. "Bingo!" said I.

And right up against the ceiling, the points are to you, the player, a reward for having served your cause.

At this point, the logic gets dicey, as true monetary rewards, as in "walk away with cash" would make this more a casino, where strict rules apply.

Or, the rewards to self could be good towards supplies in the neighboring gift store (maybe a microscope, over time?). Or toward more payloads with game time.

In the "edu-mall" hybrid, your supply stores and education stations are in close proximity. You could spend the day here and come away both more informed and more well endowed -- a cool kind of school, with age-appropriate vending.

An important aspect of this circuitry is we give patrons the option of registering their successes (high scores) in conjunction with their identity records. You'll develop a track record.

Altering the model just a little turns these good scores into academic credits, transferable in ways we might negotiate.

These blueprints have a futuristic flavor. I've been talking about 2012 as a target date for some of the services coming on-line.

Other services have already started.

You just need the right equipment and, to identify as a part of the network, the right decals and decor. Chaordic principles apply. We seek organic growth.

More Inside Story

2009-02-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

:: flatworms by M.C. Escher ::
(geometry of nature)

Some of you have maybe joined our book circle around King of Infinite Space, the well-told story of "the man who saved geometry", Donald Coxeter.

As I was discussing in Pointful Gossip (gossip with a point), Donald had an uneasy relationship with Bucky Fuller, on the one hand okaying the latter's choice to dedicate Synergetics to the master, on the other hand wanting to keep Bucky in his place, as a great man maybe, but not a great mathematician.

Dr. Fuller was a troublemaker for the settled disciplines. He got a lot of notoriety for those domes, but even here, the game was to discredit him if at all possible, deflate the guy's brief for having "the right stuff" (paraphrase).

Bucky was subversive of academic authority because his philosophy ran counter to the conventional wisdom of his day, and within earshot of students. Bucky was a dangerous maverick whose influence needed to be checked, or at least channeled.

In terms of channeling, an original discovery of Bucky's to which Coxeter was willing to give his stamp of approval, was 10 * F * F + 2: the number of balls per each layer of a growing cuboctahedron of balls i.e. a key access point to the CCP and/or face-centered cubic lattice (FCC), what Bucky himself called the "isotropic vector matrix" (with a focus on edges, more like Zome's).

This formula could be proved using high school level math. Geometry could afford a small accolade to the maverick polymath at this juncture.

As Siobahn Roberts tells it:

When a reporter from LIFE magazine called in 1970, Coxeter gave Fuller a somewhat backhanded -- but then accidentally glowing compliment.... Coxeter sent back a letter saying that one equation would be 'a remarkable discovery, justifying Bucky's evident pride,' if only it weren't too good to be true. The next day, Coxeter called: 'On further reflection, I see that it is true.'

This very same formula was turning out to have applications in virology, as it explained aspects of the viral capsid, the hard shell containing the RNA coil, relating its protein capsomere counts to the icosahedral numbers.

X-Ray diffraction had newly revealed the geodesic dome pattern in nature's micro-architecture. This was years prior to the discovery of buckminsterfullernene, the naturally occurring carbon cages with similar properties (i.e. five fold rotational symmetry).

However, Fuller himself had a bigger discovery in mind, when he hooked up with Coxeter as a leading light, and that was in connection with his modular dissection work in a related sub-branch of geometry.

Fuller goes into meticulous detail in 950.12, with related Figure, noting how page 71 of Coxeter's Regular Polytopes gives three tetrahedral space-fillers, one being a component of the other two and hence the more primitive.

Fuller emphasizes in Synergetics that this more primitive space-filler is his own discovery, the MITE, whereas Coxeter is merely describing and renaming it, while at the same time omitting all mention of the A & B modules (two cellular automata, both left and right handed). The MITE consists of two As and one B and has a volume of 1/8 in the prefrequency concentric hierarchy.

:: MITEs Cube with
pg. 71 of Regular Polytopes ::

Donald lived long enough to see this priority claim in print, and apparently published no objection to this characterization, which came without accusation of plagiarism or anything so undiplomatic. Fuller was playing some masterful chess here, dedicating the work to this great geometer, a mentor, while upping the ante with some chips of his own.

If 10 * F * F + 2 were a lucky break, then this MITE would seal the deal: Fuller was no charlatan and keeping him safely at bay, pigeon-holed as some renegade architect, would no longer be feasible. Geometers would need to acknowledge him for more than "just domes".

As it happened, academia continued to draw a line in the sand, by refusing to adopt any of Fuller's nomenclature, which, in effect, would be to accredit his discoveries, make them mainstream.

Scientific American had succeeded in cutting 10 * F * F + 2 out of the virus story, by finding an alternative telling, wiring through Michael Goldberg's studies in Japan. The Scientific American later made up for this somewhat, by publishing about Yashushi Kajikawa's synergetics-inspired modular dissections in the five-fold realm (likewise David Koski's focus), but only in its Japanese edition.

As of 2009, the intelligent reading lay public is still safely clueless, not connecting the dots between this Medal of Freedom winning radome architect, so admired by U.S. Marines and Russian intelligence services (and proponent of the global grid), and high caliber geometry breakthroughs outside of dome design, in a realm closer to the cellular automata.

When A New Kind of Science was published, obvious associations were not made, and to this day the MITE is missing from Wolfram's MathWorld on the web, while on Wikipedia, Synergetics is confused with some Springer-Verlag publication by the same title [note: we've done subsequent disambiguation work].

"Obfuscating Fuller" continues to be the name of the game in some circles, some thirty years later. Fortunately for students though, we have this Coffee Shops Network, other venues, for sharing this esoterica. Plus not everyone in academia has been trying to keep the lid on this story.

Arthur Loeb, the MIT crystallographer, dared to speak openly about A&B modules, came forward with the brilliant Amy Edmondson as his protege and author of A Fuller Explanation, seeking validation through Birkhäuser (a respected academic publisher, and subsidiary of Springer-Verlag). This book drew heavy fire from some corners, but helped a lot of die-hard buckaneers better understand their great pirate "phantom captain" (insider joke).

Likewise Ed Applewhite, chief collaborator on Synergetics and former "Deputy Inspector General and Chief of the Inspection Staff" for the CIA, groomed a few proteges, me included, for more diplomatic cockfighting of this kind, plus he amassed lots of "collateral" (aka "ammo") some of which he sent off to the special collection at Stanford.

His chief concern: that academia would get away with bleeping over Fuller's work "with impunity". I'd say there's no chance of that now. These stories are just too good to keep under wraps, plus young scholars need to get on with their studies, can't afford to just dilly-dally. It pays to know your history and your heritage.

Tygerology

2009-02-26T19:28:00.000-08:00

Disney version of
The Jungle Book tiger Shere Khan,
here depicted with Kaa

William Blake's famous poem

Tony the Tiger
said "grrrreat!" a lot,
subliminal code for
"eat mass quantities of
Kellogg's Frosted Flakes"

Esso from S.O. i.e. Standard Oil.
The "in your tank" tiger of the 1960s
was resurrected when the company
changed in name only to Exxon
i.e. "same stripes"

The Disney version of
A. A. Milne's Tigger
happy go lucky
friend of Pooh, Eeyore et al

Princeton Tiger, one of several

Number Lines

2009-02-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

A "number line" need not be "infinite" in order to be useful, nor must it be "perfectly straight". A good example: the equator, or line around the edge of a clock, with notches for hours and minutes.

On a 24 hour dial face clock, you could keep the solar disk at high noon and show which time zone was "on top" as the world kept turning, with midnight directly opposite, at the antipode.

A number line that goes all the way around the world is locally straight enough to serve as a ruler, or we might look at actual rulers as short segments taken from this great circle line.

In "arrowhead geometry" we point four number lines out from a common origin at (0,0,0,0), use 4-tuples for vector tip addressing. Michelle, Jason and I were comparing notes on whether to say "toople" or "tuhple" after the last PPUG meeting (and how about Ubuntu?: Michelle says "oobuntoo" whereas I say "ooboontoo").

We're not "anti-Euclid" just because our school inclines towards Karl Menger's "claymation station" approach to points, lines and planes. They're all "lumps" as otherwise they wouldn't reflect rays the way they do, and this is a ray tracing geometry that we're learning here, and so want our axioms and definitions to fit the application.

It's an innocuous enough move, but the dogmatists will start barking at this juncture, as "dimensionless points" are an article of faith for them, a perceived foundation for hyperdimensional polytopes and all the rest of their edifice.

I tend to make reassuring remarks at this point, reminding viewers that it's not either/or, plus in gnu math we have APL and J, hungry consumers of "hyperdimensional arrays" i.e. there's no reason to let "extended Euclideanism" fall by the wayside, even as we pioneer in different namespaces.

What we're doing is mostly backward compatible, is what I'm endeavoring to put across, even if individual notations, such as Python's, have their quiet breaks with the past.

When it comes to simple non-rationals (irrationals, incommensurables) such as 2nd and 3rd roots of simple integers, phi and pi, the natural place to begin is with simple diagrams constructible with string and a scribing surface ("a sandbox" or "white board").

Our CSO Glenn Stockton does some good teaching in this domain, including drawings in perspective. From here, it's but a small step to constructing Polyhedra, with toyz like Zome, vZome and StrangeAttractors.

Our exploratory constructivism has a soft spot for such geometric constructions, embraces Euclid like a favorite teddy bear. We don't forget about Euclid's Method for the GCD either, like using Guido's Pythonic implementation thereof.

Another Creature

2009-02-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

:: another Koski original
using vZome by Vorthmann ::

I'm at Rams Head (McMenamins), feeling fortunate to be getting some of the latest and greatest.

I'm at bat for Silicon Forest today, making a case for keeping students in the 21st century, not allowing as much backsliding. Mostly I'm working with math teachers, as they're the furthest behind, the most in need of remedial attention.

Fortunately, the new curriculum is as colorful and entertaining as it is effective in getting the concepts across. We're not shy about saying our stuff is the right stuff.

Twas my privilege to provide computer services to Common Man Studios yesterday, the outfit behind Jimmy Lott. Given I'm marketing Portland as "the Nashville of Open Source", it makes sense that I'd be criss-crossing the music, not-music boundary, obscuring the difference in some ways.

Kirby Urner
4Dsolutions.net

Excerpting from PolyList:

There is a total of 6 different rhombs that make up the 132 sided shape; 12+12+12+24+24+48=132.

There will be a total of 220 hexhedra that make up the form which I will follow up on.

I do want to apologize for the ugliness of this beast, and hope to put it back in its pen as soon as possible.

David Koski
Minneapolis MN

From PolyList

2009-02-23T13:56:00.001-08:00

by D. Koski using vZome

Well, I was encouraged by Scott Vothmann to try again on the great rhombicuboctahedron.

I didn't exactly succeed but did generate this 132 sided rhombic form. It has 48 squares and 24 (60,120) rhombi and the three other rhombi I have not identified yet. 12 of the fattest one, 24 each of the ones that make the eight pointed stars.

I figured the form out by using the Parallel Projection Process. Vorthmann's vZome has a root 2 system which has 24 brown strut positions or 12 different axes.

So, 12*11 will be the amount of rhombic faces of which there are five different types. Therefore, 12/1*11/2*10/3 = 220 total hexahedral cells.

Yes, those are flat hexagons and there are 4 zero volume hexahedra that correspond to them.

Amounts of different hexahedra will soon follow.

BTW, The late Russell Towle refers to the Archimedean Truncated Cuboctahedron (s/b Great Rhombicuboctahedron?) on this page:
http://home.inreach.com/rtowle/Zonohedra/zonohedra.html scroll down to middle of page

He calls it A Notorious Zonohedron, does anyone know why?

Is this shape cataloged anywhere, I would like to find more out about it.

Thanks
David Koski
Minneapolis MN

Followup to PolyList: I made a mistake. There are not 48 squares, but they are rhombi of course. David Koski