Some slides from my talk

:: from Pythonic Andragogy ::

Faraday Rooms

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

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

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

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

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...

by Jennifer Reeves with music by Raymond Scott and Tommy Dorset


by John Driscoll starring Amber Muir