Agood - People helping People

Well, I may be seeing them more, because I am looking for them, but I saw another agood today.

On my way in to BART this evening, I saw a man trying to bring a large, heavy box, strapped to one of those small chrome rollers, down the stairs. Just as I was trying to figure out how to help, a young man just downstream from the gentleman having troubles turns around, comes back up a couple of stairs, and grabs the bottom of the chrome rack and starts carrying the box down the stairs, walking backwards!

This young man was:

• Taking time from whatever he was heading to


• Risking his own health

In order to:

• Help another human being, having a hard time


• Speed up the stairs for everyone else


• Make the stairs SAFER for everyone else


• Improve the karmic balance of the world

In exchange for:

•  

So, here is a tip o' the blogg-o-hat to you sir! You have made the world a better place.

I Want - Data Packetization

Another case of "this _will_ happen, just because I want it to".

I want to have a way to packetize my data and work with it in a more abstract sense. Blocks. Yeah, I understand how to move those around. Stack them up, build new things with them. Why is it not possible to work with the information that I interact with in a similar fashion?

Think of the chunks of data that you interact with each day: Blogs, Comics, E-mail, Priority E-mails, Phone calls, Videos, links to many of these, links from friends to all of these.

If I could get my data to morph into something resembling a block, it would be possible to have a program whose entire job is to prioritize my exposure to this data. I could teach it about the trusted nature of each source (An e-mail from Trey takes priority over one from BuyV1@gr@, one from Gina should be shown to me immediately) but in doing so, I would also have control over changing my trust in a source. If I recieve nothing but hoax e-mails from Sue, but the links that she sends me to videos are fantastic, how do I filter her "from" address?

I know that a lot of this can be done now via email filters, but with the rise of social networks for data sharing, this is going to get a little out of control. How about a way to subscribe to the RSS feeds from every blog that I read, and yet only have the stories that I am actually interested in make it to my aggregator?

If I could rate the source of the information (I like Frank's sense of humor, but have no desire to read about his crochet hobby) would I not be able to see just the YouTube video links he sends me, but not the tea cozy patterns?

Take this a step further, and if all data came to me in a block form, my agent program would be able to figure out the direct source, and possibly one or more steps back up the stream, and allow me to rate that content however I wish. Rate the stream, and you have more control over what comes down that stream. I like the videos produced by EepyBird.com but do not need to see every Mentos & Coke video that gets made. If Sue sends me a link to a new video that they made, I want to see it, but not if it was made by Joe from Schenectady. Rate the source, rate the packetized data, not necessarily the sender. If my agent doesn't yet have enough information about the source, then it would get to me based on the rating of the sender.

I haven't heard much recently on progress made with "Personal Agents", but maybe this would be a way to kick start development again?

Rate the source, not the data, with a reasonable amount of granularity, add an intuitive mechanism for doing so, and you will have just the information you want, when you want it.

Rant - Why Americans are so FAT

Let's just say that, in moderation, Hamburgers are OK. Fine.

THIS IS NOT OK!

A Hamburger, made on a "bun" of a Krispy Kreme doughnut? I can feel my arteries hardening from here! And they are making them in Illinois.

So here is a great idea. Go to a ballpark, sit on your butt, eat greasy, fat food, surrounded by refined sugar, and watch someone ELSE actually be physical and healthy. Does that make you healthier? Increase your lifespan? Reduce your load on the american medical system? Raise or lower _my_ medical insurance rates? Can I just call the inventor of this death food irresponsible and be done with it?

Who says the Onion isn't real news?

Chain - One Word

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me -- it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this in your blog so that I may leave a word about you.