Gmail. Got me an account, and I cannot wait to get my grubby little fingers on it. Something about having a gigabyte of free space that appeals to me. I think we are furthering the trend established when the Bondi-blue iMac came without a floppy drive; namely, the dumb-terminal model of computing. I find that I'm putting more and more of my files online, and this new account will only encourage that habit.
Cf. Richard Jones' GmailFS. Also the Gmail blog tool Gallina, by Jonathan Hernandez.
BLOGumentary has a really interesting short film (12 MB .mov file) on the history of blogging, as well as its genetic resemblance to the journaling exploits of 17th century raconteur Samuel Pepys, the American Revolutionary pamphleteers, and the golden age of 20th century mass media. It's still in the working stages at this point, but still very much worth a quick peek.
Referring, of course, to the patron saint of nerds everywhere, a.k.a. the Scourge of Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings:
oh, wait...
No commentary for this entry...just a catalogue of links to some recent meatspace gatherings centered around the wondeful world of the digital arts:
> ARS Electronica, now in its 25th year.
> SIGGRAPH 2004, in its 31st season, was held last month.
> World-Wide Newton Conference, the inaugural event, held in Paris (love the Newton, btw).
> Burning Man, the closest thing to a hippie-fest that I'd consider attending.
...A couple weeks ago I came in first at the No Limit Texas Hold'Em tournament they've been holding at Fado Pub in Easton, and last week I came in 5th. It's not a cash game, so we haven't been raided, unlike some other bars in town recently. There's a winners' tournament scheduled for later this year: first place gets a $500 travel voucher. I'll let you know how things turn out...
Also, I should give a shout-out to my online poker home: PokerRoom.com. And now, back to the usual, academically oriented techno-talk...