Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Polyhedron of the Month

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)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

CTO in Paris

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.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Monday, February 8, 2010

Future Projections

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.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Coffee Shop Schools

cooking school in cyberia

GENI.org geoscope

zonohedron by Dave Koski

Friday, January 8, 2010

Bookkeeping Cartoons

What's Next?
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.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Adrenaline Week

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.