I did some much needed Spring cleaning of my apartment. Washed every fabric I can see, dusted every single piece of furniture, and wiped everything down till they were shining in the sunlight. The weather outside is hot (90F), but there are advantages of living on 6th floor apartment right next to a vast grass field/lake. The wind through the windows are cool and they carry the pleasant fragrance of flowers and trees. Now this is what I call Spring cleaning.
The whole thing took about 4 hours. Dusting all the bookshelves alone took some effort, and I had to sort through all sorts of notes and sketches strewn across my desk to figure out which ones to keep and which ones to throw away. It might not sound like much, but the problem is in that my desk is a converted workbench I picked up for cheap in some yard sale by the wave hill park. The thing is vast. I can actually go onto it and sleep with all my limbs spread out. I'd say it's about half the size of my bed, which is also inexplicably large for a bed in a bachelor's apartment. Whatever. I'm not complaining.
There's something about maintaining well-organized, clean living environment that's very fulfilling for me. I think it has to do with how dojos and zen temples place so much emphasis on cleaning and wiping down everything all the time. I used to think it was annoying (and yes, I spent some time in both of those places. Maybe I should write about that sometime), but now that I'm older, I think I can see some point in all that. There's a serene and calming quality to organization of the environment around yourself, and the fact that inevitable wave of entropy will eventually make everything messy again just adds to the quality of the experience.
The fact that my entire apartment begins to smell like middle of a pine forest whenever I open my windows just adds to the experience I think. I probably won't be as committed to cleaning stuff up if my apartment was facing a railroad tracks for example.
The only sobering fact of the whole necessity of cleaning the world is that I feel like I'm missing out on so much simply to maintain some semblance of order in my life. The four hours of cleaning is fours hours of time I couldn't spend on working with the synthetic biology software suite (something I'm using to study biological systems in synthetic context these days, fascinating piece of software, though I'm just beginning to learn the ropes myself).
That is why the humanity needs robotic butlers/maids I think.
I'm impressed with myself for connecting robotic butler/maids with the zen practice of self-reflection. I think I'll go out reward myself with some burgers.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Net
Look at this website http://startpanic.com
If you give that website a permission it will scrounge through the database of your web browser in use and list every single webpage you've ever visited using that browser (unless you were using some session masking ability available on some browsers like the chrome and safari). Of course, it's a mere showcase of the security vulnerability of web browsers on the market, and all the private data is perfectly safe and for your eyes only, so I suggest you to try it just for the scare factor.
It's rather surprising that the utility/algorithm for the webpage is capable of retrieving even deleted histories of the web browser in question. I think the sites does that by reading through permissions files and cookies, but then I'm not too proficient with the internet technology in general. That is, I know what tools to use to get my stuff done, but not enough to know how those tools work in practice, just like the vast majority of web users out there.
Considering the continuous push from governments around the world toward 'controlling' the net and its information content for one reason or other, this is rather disturbing. I'm even more amazed that most browsers that are considered better compared to internet-standards-ignoring heap of mess they call IE are still vulnerable to such simplistic snooping. The whole issue of internet security and privacy is edging closer toward some kind of critical mass, and I don't know what will happen once the movement hits the threshold. I don't want to sound too alarmist or anything, but this seem to be something worth worrying about.
Only way to stay safe from such snooping would be to run a separate server that encrypts ever one of your signals, but that would be an overkill not to mention detrimental to general web performance, something that can't be tolerated in this day and age. The most consumer-friendly way to offset the danger of privacy would be twofold. First would be continuous pressure on the governments from the population itself, and the second way would be for software developers to come up with better, more secure web browsers.
I'm pretty big on the whole search for the ideal web browser. I think I might have used practically every single major web browsers on the market by now. How many layman these days can say they've used Sleipnir/Lunascape/Opera/Chrome/Firefox/Chromium/Lynx/Telnet/IE on regular basis just to find the web browser that is perfect for almost every usage scenario? I certainly tried them all and quite extensively too. And every single one of them fall short in one way or the other, some of them even more so then others.
At the moment I'm leaning towards a mix between Opera and Chrome. I used to be a major firefox user, but all those extensions really bog the browser down, to the point that it takes some ungodly amount of time to just start the browser, at least compared to the competition. I thought I would miss the extensions for firefox, but the fact of the matter is extensions built right into the browser are becoming increasingly niche in this age of web 2.0 applications. For example in Chrome I can block ads and pull websites off the browser and onto the desktop, transforming them into an instant program I can access by double clicking a single button that opens up in its own application window. Like Gmail/Gchat and even third party sites like the del.icious bookmarking service (which had been quite a life saver in my cross-platform journeys). So the focus of web browser for me is in speed and safety. At the moment Chrome is the browser that fits the two profiles perfectly. The whole java sandbox idea is much more isgnificant than it would first appear. The sandbox system is capable of stopping almost every single unintended break-in to the system from the web front. It's also quite possibly the fastest browser on the market, and has full backing of the google corp. Lot of people have mixed feelings about google corporation, but I like them. At least they are better than microsoft.
If there's one trouble with Chrome it would be the amount of RAM and processing power the browser requires. I think the whole architecture of separate tab processing cycles and sandbox mechanisms make it necessary to consume such resources. For a compulsive multitasker and laptop user like me resource consumption of web browsers is something to keep a keen eye on, and Chrome is a monster in that regard. Which is the reason why I keep Opera at hand for some excessive multi-tabbing. Opera is really well optimized for older operating systems. It's probably the only modern web browser capable of running in win 98/95 environment.
If you give that website a permission it will scrounge through the database of your web browser in use and list every single webpage you've ever visited using that browser (unless you were using some session masking ability available on some browsers like the chrome and safari). Of course, it's a mere showcase of the security vulnerability of web browsers on the market, and all the private data is perfectly safe and for your eyes only, so I suggest you to try it just for the scare factor.
It's rather surprising that the utility/algorithm for the webpage is capable of retrieving even deleted histories of the web browser in question. I think the sites does that by reading through permissions files and cookies, but then I'm not too proficient with the internet technology in general. That is, I know what tools to use to get my stuff done, but not enough to know how those tools work in practice, just like the vast majority of web users out there.
Considering the continuous push from governments around the world toward 'controlling' the net and its information content for one reason or other, this is rather disturbing. I'm even more amazed that most browsers that are considered better compared to internet-standards-ignoring heap of mess they call IE are still vulnerable to such simplistic snooping. The whole issue of internet security and privacy is edging closer toward some kind of critical mass, and I don't know what will happen once the movement hits the threshold. I don't want to sound too alarmist or anything, but this seem to be something worth worrying about.
Only way to stay safe from such snooping would be to run a separate server that encrypts ever one of your signals, but that would be an overkill not to mention detrimental to general web performance, something that can't be tolerated in this day and age. The most consumer-friendly way to offset the danger of privacy would be twofold. First would be continuous pressure on the governments from the population itself, and the second way would be for software developers to come up with better, more secure web browsers.
I'm pretty big on the whole search for the ideal web browser. I think I might have used practically every single major web browsers on the market by now. How many layman these days can say they've used Sleipnir/Lunascape/Opera/Chrome/Firefox/Chromium/Lynx/Telnet/IE on regular basis just to find the web browser that is perfect for almost every usage scenario? I certainly tried them all and quite extensively too. And every single one of them fall short in one way or the other, some of them even more so then others.
At the moment I'm leaning towards a mix between Opera and Chrome. I used to be a major firefox user, but all those extensions really bog the browser down, to the point that it takes some ungodly amount of time to just start the browser, at least compared to the competition. I thought I would miss the extensions for firefox, but the fact of the matter is extensions built right into the browser are becoming increasingly niche in this age of web 2.0 applications. For example in Chrome I can block ads and pull websites off the browser and onto the desktop, transforming them into an instant program I can access by double clicking a single button that opens up in its own application window. Like Gmail/Gchat and even third party sites like the del.icious bookmarking service (which had been quite a life saver in my cross-platform journeys). So the focus of web browser for me is in speed and safety. At the moment Chrome is the browser that fits the two profiles perfectly. The whole java sandbox idea is much more isgnificant than it would first appear. The sandbox system is capable of stopping almost every single unintended break-in to the system from the web front. It's also quite possibly the fastest browser on the market, and has full backing of the google corp. Lot of people have mixed feelings about google corporation, but I like them. At least they are better than microsoft.
If there's one trouble with Chrome it would be the amount of RAM and processing power the browser requires. I think the whole architecture of separate tab processing cycles and sandbox mechanisms make it necessary to consume such resources. For a compulsive multitasker and laptop user like me resource consumption of web browsers is something to keep a keen eye on, and Chrome is a monster in that regard. Which is the reason why I keep Opera at hand for some excessive multi-tabbing. Opera is really well optimized for older operating systems. It's probably the only modern web browser capable of running in win 98/95 environment.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Waiting
It's four in the morning. I came back home at around two thirty from the diybio nyc meetup. I've been trying to get some simulation codes working in mathematica that I need to use for tomorrow's presentation. This may not have been the best idea, since I'm now tired enough to actually feel pain in my head.
Well, the code's already rolling and I need to stay awake until it comes to a conclusion, one way or another. I might as well write something while waiting. It feels a little strange to be writing on this little device when I have a thinkpad with fantastic, full sized keyboard right in front of me. I just don't want to waste any part of the main laptop's processor cycle in anything other than work though.
I'm not a computer savvy person. I just happens to do a lot of things that require thinking, and in modern society it means using a lot of computerized tools. What will come of this? What will come of the world where doing science means interacting with and using computers to some specialized degree (at least in the eyes of the layman)? Whatever the outcome may be, the future will be an interesting thing to see.
The nyt interview/GFP experiment went swimmingly. I had a lot of questions I had on structure and function of plasmids answered. I think I'm about prepared to do an actual wetwork using the biobrick parts. (Dracova, if you're reading this, maybe we should talk about more bio stuff?) I'm thinking of beginning by putting together a little cellular automata that's capable of turning its own light on and off. Maybe I can do it with algae and make a little glowing garden that is also a form of cellular automata computer. Not very productive, but it will be beautiful, something straight out of Miyazaki Hayao's best works... Maybe I have better qualification as a bioartist rather than biotechnician.
I think I've decided. I'm going to actively pursue the idea of using biobrick parts to construct a living cellular automata that changes its signal through GFP induced light. After it is done I might be able to reapply the same methodology to algae, which has a far more complex architecture compared to the naturally competent strain of E.Coli K12 we usually use.
The mathematica is about to churn out its results. I guess it means I can get some sleep at last.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Well, the code's already rolling and I need to stay awake until it comes to a conclusion, one way or another. I might as well write something while waiting. It feels a little strange to be writing on this little device when I have a thinkpad with fantastic, full sized keyboard right in front of me. I just don't want to waste any part of the main laptop's processor cycle in anything other than work though.
I'm not a computer savvy person. I just happens to do a lot of things that require thinking, and in modern society it means using a lot of computerized tools. What will come of this? What will come of the world where doing science means interacting with and using computers to some specialized degree (at least in the eyes of the layman)? Whatever the outcome may be, the future will be an interesting thing to see.
The nyt interview/GFP experiment went swimmingly. I had a lot of questions I had on structure and function of plasmids answered. I think I'm about prepared to do an actual wetwork using the biobrick parts. (Dracova, if you're reading this, maybe we should talk about more bio stuff?) I'm thinking of beginning by putting together a little cellular automata that's capable of turning its own light on and off. Maybe I can do it with algae and make a little glowing garden that is also a form of cellular automata computer. Not very productive, but it will be beautiful, something straight out of Miyazaki Hayao's best works... Maybe I have better qualification as a bioartist rather than biotechnician.
I think I've decided. I'm going to actively pursue the idea of using biobrick parts to construct a living cellular automata that changes its signal through GFP induced light. After it is done I might be able to reapply the same methodology to algae, which has a far more complex architecture compared to the naturally competent strain of E.Coli K12 we usually use.
The mathematica is about to churn out its results. I guess it means I can get some sleep at last.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Dreams
What are dreams? I think I've been having quite a few vivid ones lately, the unusually vivid and memorable kind. Those kind of dreams mark a visage upon the dreamer that extends even into the waking world.
Maybe it's just the weariness getting to me. Maybe it's something else, an alteration in my brain chemistry. Maybe it's the stress I've been getting from people around me. The dreams are getting more and more vivid yet I can't seem to be able to recall them all too clearly. I might not be able to remember the exact stories of the dreams but individual scenes and moments of the dreams are burned into my memory like they actually happened to me. What is the difference between a memory of unmistakably realistic dream and memory of things that really happened to me? Only the physical consequences remain to help me make the distinction.
It's really interesting when you think about it. What part of the emergent system that is the human intellect drives such a phenomanon? What composes the fabric of the dreams and merge it within the framework of human memory? Will it be possible to engineer dreams in such a way to combine it directly with the everyday memory?
And just what drives people to keep on finding fascination within their dreams?
It would be interesting to be able to apply the framework of synthetic biology to the study and manipulation of the nervous system. A controlled study of dreams on cellular levels might even be beneficial to learning the characteristics of complex emergent systems...
Speaking of vivid memories and dreams, I need to ask if they are in any way related to imagination as well. From my experience people who have interesting dreams don't necessarily have vivid imagination, but then how many people with capacity for imagination do you see these days? A lot of trash-heap sentimentalities (meaning:without compassion) or vulgurities disguised as realism/realpolitik, but no imagination. Nothing that breaks out of the usual mould of cause and effect that direct the development of minds.
Yes. It's my sincierest wish that I might someday be able to have a genuine capacity for imagination, that is beyond the simple result of environment and time. At least I try, and I know that most people can't seem to be able to recognize how pedestrian and downtrodden many of their most imaginative ventures are, so I might be making a step toward having a genuine imagination... Just think about it. What kind of future would we build without a true capacity for imagination? Without the ability to imagine, the future will simply end up being a stale derivative of what we have at the moment. And that is one thing people interested in future tries to avoid, isn't it?
Or am I just a sarcastic clown now? The time will tell.
I'm thinking all the dreams might have to do with my longing for long journey to faraway places. The timing certain feels on the spot. It's funny. The will to find another future intermingled with memories of the past, all of them one and the same. I must be a lot more interesting guy than I give myself credit for.
At the moment I'm seriously considering taking the plunge and get some unique perspectives on biosciences and physics from other places around the world. The academy is still as fragmented by location as any other human endeavor, and from what I hear there are a lot of different advances and discussions going on in other parts of the world.
I might be able to come to a real decision in a month or two.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Maybe it's just the weariness getting to me. Maybe it's something else, an alteration in my brain chemistry. Maybe it's the stress I've been getting from people around me. The dreams are getting more and more vivid yet I can't seem to be able to recall them all too clearly. I might not be able to remember the exact stories of the dreams but individual scenes and moments of the dreams are burned into my memory like they actually happened to me. What is the difference between a memory of unmistakably realistic dream and memory of things that really happened to me? Only the physical consequences remain to help me make the distinction.
It's really interesting when you think about it. What part of the emergent system that is the human intellect drives such a phenomanon? What composes the fabric of the dreams and merge it within the framework of human memory? Will it be possible to engineer dreams in such a way to combine it directly with the everyday memory?
And just what drives people to keep on finding fascination within their dreams?
It would be interesting to be able to apply the framework of synthetic biology to the study and manipulation of the nervous system. A controlled study of dreams on cellular levels might even be beneficial to learning the characteristics of complex emergent systems...
Speaking of vivid memories and dreams, I need to ask if they are in any way related to imagination as well. From my experience people who have interesting dreams don't necessarily have vivid imagination, but then how many people with capacity for imagination do you see these days? A lot of trash-heap sentimentalities (meaning:without compassion) or vulgurities disguised as realism/realpolitik, but no imagination. Nothing that breaks out of the usual mould of cause and effect that direct the development of minds.
Yes. It's my sincierest wish that I might someday be able to have a genuine capacity for imagination, that is beyond the simple result of environment and time. At least I try, and I know that most people can't seem to be able to recognize how pedestrian and downtrodden many of their most imaginative ventures are, so I might be making a step toward having a genuine imagination... Just think about it. What kind of future would we build without a true capacity for imagination? Without the ability to imagine, the future will simply end up being a stale derivative of what we have at the moment. And that is one thing people interested in future tries to avoid, isn't it?
Or am I just a sarcastic clown now? The time will tell.
I'm thinking all the dreams might have to do with my longing for long journey to faraway places. The timing certain feels on the spot. It's funny. The will to find another future intermingled with memories of the past, all of them one and the same. I must be a lot more interesting guy than I give myself credit for.
At the moment I'm seriously considering taking the plunge and get some unique perspectives on biosciences and physics from other places around the world. The academy is still as fragmented by location as any other human endeavor, and from what I hear there are a lot of different advances and discussions going on in other parts of the world.
I might be able to come to a real decision in a month or two.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Monday, April 13, 2009
The longest journey
I've been a little busy lately. Oh who am I kidding I've been busy for a long time. The events of the days happen so fast in such rapid succession next to each other that I'm beginning to find it all very tiring. I'm under a serious need to stop myself and think about what it's all for, that kind of stuff. I keep on thinking about going on a long journey, or at least moving my base of operations to somewhere else, maybe in Europe, to study with new people as well as taking in the sights.
I'm currently eying the institutions in Germany or somewhere in that region, maybe even enroll in the SymbioticA course for the time being. I'm sure the credit will be transferable to the colleges in U.S. I think I might even be moving to Boston soon, so it might be something worth thinking about. I'm coming to realize that I'm usually the happiest when I'm on the move for some reason.
I haven't been keeping in touch with my family, that is my mother and father for a long time now. I do keep in touch with my extended family in other parts of the world though. It's rather odd now that I think about it. All I know about my birthparents at the moment is that they are still living within the North America, so I guess that doesn't mean much. I have no wish to see them anytime soon either. All they are are like specters of bad memories and abuses.
I've been thinking about fantasy... Or rather, imaginative worlds a lot lately. In literature scene the d&d and other licensed products (the lord of the rings even) destroyed so much of the people's individuality that you cannot use the word fantasy without evoking scenes of wankers with swords playing around in pseudo-medieval getup. It's really a sad state of things. When I say fantasy writing, I'm really talking about the kind of writing that doesn't happen within the confines of the 'real world', or whatever it is humorless dicks call their shallow interpretation of the world these days. Worlds and ideas that are really 'fantastic' and imaginative, fitting of the namesake.
When I write, and I do a lot of that these days, I write much better and faster when it's directly from my head, with no regards for facts and figures and equations. No political considerations and no concern about where and when I should use certain types of vocabulary. When I write within soe sort of confine the result tend to come out horrible and I end up spending just as long trying to salvage the whole thing as I spent writing it in the first place. But when I write something off the top of my head, a sort of extended freewrite exercise, I can just go on and on writing about my own thoughts and various imagined situations and characters, and the whole experience brings me such a feeling of fulfillment. I don't know why that is. Maybe it has something to do with all the wanderlust I've been feeling lately.
I'm thinking, maybe I should really write something. Of course, I write pages after pages of stuff every single day, I'm talking about something more imaginative and dedicated. Something fantastic and coherent. I've been writing little bits and pieces of such musings all over the place now. Like the bits set in the universe of the library of Babel. Or the hundred years of solitude. things set in art schools and laboratories, little bits of poetries and whatnot. Maybe I should try to pour all of those things into a single coherent story, a single universe with such fantastic components. Maybe I can even steal a character or two from my favorite writings, like the script for the adventure game longest journey. I'm even thinking of making a different version of April Ryan as the main character in the world. She'll probably be an art student just like in the original story. Maybe she can major in the field of bioarts, where they use tissue and genetic engineering to create works of art. There would be such wonderful worlds waiting for her.
I'm currently eying the institutions in Germany or somewhere in that region, maybe even enroll in the SymbioticA course for the time being. I'm sure the credit will be transferable to the colleges in U.S. I think I might even be moving to Boston soon, so it might be something worth thinking about. I'm coming to realize that I'm usually the happiest when I'm on the move for some reason.
I haven't been keeping in touch with my family, that is my mother and father for a long time now. I do keep in touch with my extended family in other parts of the world though. It's rather odd now that I think about it. All I know about my birthparents at the moment is that they are still living within the North America, so I guess that doesn't mean much. I have no wish to see them anytime soon either. All they are are like specters of bad memories and abuses.
I've been thinking about fantasy... Or rather, imaginative worlds a lot lately. In literature scene the d&d and other licensed products (the lord of the rings even) destroyed so much of the people's individuality that you cannot use the word fantasy without evoking scenes of wankers with swords playing around in pseudo-medieval getup. It's really a sad state of things. When I say fantasy writing, I'm really talking about the kind of writing that doesn't happen within the confines of the 'real world', or whatever it is humorless dicks call their shallow interpretation of the world these days. Worlds and ideas that are really 'fantastic' and imaginative, fitting of the namesake.
When I write, and I do a lot of that these days, I write much better and faster when it's directly from my head, with no regards for facts and figures and equations. No political considerations and no concern about where and when I should use certain types of vocabulary. When I write within soe sort of confine the result tend to come out horrible and I end up spending just as long trying to salvage the whole thing as I spent writing it in the first place. But when I write something off the top of my head, a sort of extended freewrite exercise, I can just go on and on writing about my own thoughts and various imagined situations and characters, and the whole experience brings me such a feeling of fulfillment. I don't know why that is. Maybe it has something to do with all the wanderlust I've been feeling lately.
I'm thinking, maybe I should really write something. Of course, I write pages after pages of stuff every single day, I'm talking about something more imaginative and dedicated. Something fantastic and coherent. I've been writing little bits and pieces of such musings all over the place now. Like the bits set in the universe of the library of Babel. Or the hundred years of solitude. things set in art schools and laboratories, little bits of poetries and whatnot. Maybe I should try to pour all of those things into a single coherent story, a single universe with such fantastic components. Maybe I can even steal a character or two from my favorite writings, like the script for the adventure game longest journey. I'm even thinking of making a different version of April Ryan as the main character in the world. She'll probably be an art student just like in the original story. Maybe she can major in the field of bioarts, where they use tissue and genetic engineering to create works of art. There would be such wonderful worlds waiting for her.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Snowing in the rose reading room
Got into the reading room for the morning, will need to head back to school after lunch. I can see some flurry outside the window, in the backdrop of skyscrapers and murals of twilight clouds.
It's beautiful and the world looks good. There are people in the reading room silently going about with their business, all reading or writing something with a sort of intense concentration that can't be seen with most people outside of here.
My laptop is on the desk crunching away at numbers and figures, and I have an old book of Ovid open in front of me to pass away the time of calculation. I love the smell of old books and slight scent of coffee in the air. I guess some of them just got off the daily dose of morning bagel and coffee.
In this brief moments of the days I feel very much alive and and recharged. It's a calm feeling that your life is going in the right direction, and the reminder that you are, and will be devoted to your dreams. It's a very gentle promise of the world that there are people who see far enough to worry about something more than their immediate comfort and survival. It's the sound of the future being laid out, probably for the better.
I might move to Boston sometime soon. I'm trying to get to MIT and there's a chance that I might actually be able to make it. I'll really miss this city once I'm gone.
While I'm still here though, I really need to get the diybio nyc rolling. It's really hard to find good people who are interested in diybio itself, rather than showing off with half-baked notions of 'biohacking' and whatnot. I need people who have demonstrated a capacity to stick with something and see it through to the end. Not something that takes months but something that takes years of continued effort and devotion. At this stage of the group letting in unproven people with questionable devotion and motivation would be devastating to the morale of the group. Not to mention, the group is in a very financially uncertain state. I would need people capable of supporting the group financially as well as technically. The members would have to be givers as well as takers. There have been some progress but I still need to find some way to get more of such qualified people working with the group. Once the group itself stabilizes a bit more, with decent funding and reliable, dedicated members, we would be able to accomodate people who are not as dedicated.
Well, it's time for me to go off and do some real work again.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
It's beautiful and the world looks good. There are people in the reading room silently going about with their business, all reading or writing something with a sort of intense concentration that can't be seen with most people outside of here.
My laptop is on the desk crunching away at numbers and figures, and I have an old book of Ovid open in front of me to pass away the time of calculation. I love the smell of old books and slight scent of coffee in the air. I guess some of them just got off the daily dose of morning bagel and coffee.
In this brief moments of the days I feel very much alive and and recharged. It's a calm feeling that your life is going in the right direction, and the reminder that you are, and will be devoted to your dreams. It's a very gentle promise of the world that there are people who see far enough to worry about something more than their immediate comfort and survival. It's the sound of the future being laid out, probably for the better.
I might move to Boston sometime soon. I'm trying to get to MIT and there's a chance that I might actually be able to make it. I'll really miss this city once I'm gone.
While I'm still here though, I really need to get the diybio nyc rolling. It's really hard to find good people who are interested in diybio itself, rather than showing off with half-baked notions of 'biohacking' and whatnot. I need people who have demonstrated a capacity to stick with something and see it through to the end. Not something that takes months but something that takes years of continued effort and devotion. At this stage of the group letting in unproven people with questionable devotion and motivation would be devastating to the morale of the group. Not to mention, the group is in a very financially uncertain state. I would need people capable of supporting the group financially as well as technically. The members would have to be givers as well as takers. There have been some progress but I still need to find some way to get more of such qualified people working with the group. Once the group itself stabilizes a bit more, with decent funding and reliable, dedicated members, we would be able to accomodate people who are not as dedicated.
Well, it's time for me to go off and do some real work again.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Monday, April 6, 2009
Productivity
Spent the early hours of the morning going through papers in the lab. Since about 6 in the morning to be precise. I needed some place to work on my stuff and it turns out that I didn't have much choice during such wee hours of the morning.
Now the day is almost over and I'm writing this as I wait for a friend of mine to join for dinner. Such is the lifestyle of the modern datamancer.
Also got some light lunch at the cafe zaiya's. The place is really beginning to go down hill I think. I can still remember the days the cafe had a whole lot more on the menu for a lot less. I guess the economy is hitting away at one of my favorite hangout spots as well(at least in the midtown region I guess).
Spent much of the day cooped up in the rose reading room at the central library, concentrating on drafting papers for my lab work and some side stuff for the diybio group. There must be something strange in the air at that place. It feels as if I do my best works in that place. I just find it much easier to concentrate in that place for some reason. There is a kind of intensity in the air, and you can't find anyone dicking around in that place. No one chatting with a friend, no one watching some video on the net or browsing some meaningless website. The air of pure academic learning and pursuit of something that normally remains beyond the reach of average men.
As I was writing down equations after equations, and drafting course ideas for the synthetic biology class I saw rays of afternoon sunlight streaming through the old windows. The effect was nothing short of solemn. I wish I was able to capture the feel of the
Other than the usual, I wrote some rough draft for diybo $300 course. The idea is to be able to offer a decent 2-day diybio course with full wetlab component for $300 per head. It's a sort of side idea I came up with after reading about the $3000 five day MIT course. Mac Owell sounds quite enthusiastic about that idea, and I really think it might be able to take off. I think the group will be able to offer something by the October of this year, but of course I would need to talk the whole thing through with the group members first and thus the need to think about all possibilities and come up with a workable draft. I will be putting the whole thing up on my blog soon, after I put some finishing touches on the agenda and such.
Being able to come up with some sort of diybio courseware had always been a secret passion of mine. How amazing would it be to be able to do a full scale wetlab exercise in diybio style? Any suitably motivated person would be able to do a biology related research on his or her own. Well, it's already possible actually. Anyone can learn minimal amount of python coding and run BLAST interface through the internet by connecting to GenBank. It's diy bioinformatics and there are some people making noticeable contribution to the field by working with a laptop and minimal scripts.
I see two main problems at being able to run a diybio class though. The first is the relative ignorance of the target audience. Any diybio class would be targeted at novices with no background in academic research. I'm fine with that. I am however, worried about the kind of people who have preconceived notions of what diybio is/should be. There are so many people out there who can't tell the difference between reading stuff on computer screen and actually researching something in academic capacity. It's easy to teach something to people who don't know. It might even be fun. But attempting to teach something to someone who already thinks he/she knows everything there is to know about the subject is painful both for teacher and the student. It's very disheartening to see people who cannot tell the difference between studying and glossing over textbooks.
The second problem is the usual. The need for materials and resources for diybio. It's very difficult, perhaps impossible to grab hold of basic biobrick materials, at least any organization that is not sanctioned by the local government as an educational institution. There will be a lot of red tapes to jump through if I were to pursue an actual wetlab project.
On lighter note, I finally got the java based irc client working on my blackberry. Apparently the program can run on 'regular' cellphones as well since it's completely based on java architecture. Maybe I should give it a try on some of my older cellphones as well. I'm having a bit of fun speaking to the peeps at phys lab and funcom server people trying to solve the arg puzzles. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Now the day is almost over and I'm writing this as I wait for a friend of mine to join for dinner. Such is the lifestyle of the modern datamancer.
Also got some light lunch at the cafe zaiya's. The place is really beginning to go down hill I think. I can still remember the days the cafe had a whole lot more on the menu for a lot less. I guess the economy is hitting away at one of my favorite hangout spots as well(at least in the midtown region I guess).
Spent much of the day cooped up in the rose reading room at the central library, concentrating on drafting papers for my lab work and some side stuff for the diybio group. There must be something strange in the air at that place. It feels as if I do my best works in that place. I just find it much easier to concentrate in that place for some reason. There is a kind of intensity in the air, and you can't find anyone dicking around in that place. No one chatting with a friend, no one watching some video on the net or browsing some meaningless website. The air of pure academic learning and pursuit of something that normally remains beyond the reach of average men.
As I was writing down equations after equations, and drafting course ideas for the synthetic biology class I saw rays of afternoon sunlight streaming through the old windows. The effect was nothing short of solemn. I wish I was able to capture the feel of the
Other than the usual, I wrote some rough draft for diybo $300 course. The idea is to be able to offer a decent 2-day diybio course with full wetlab component for $300 per head. It's a sort of side idea I came up with after reading about the $3000 five day MIT course. Mac Owell sounds quite enthusiastic about that idea, and I really think it might be able to take off. I think the group will be able to offer something by the October of this year, but of course I would need to talk the whole thing through with the group members first and thus the need to think about all possibilities and come up with a workable draft. I will be putting the whole thing up on my blog soon, after I put some finishing touches on the agenda and such.
Being able to come up with some sort of diybio courseware had always been a secret passion of mine. How amazing would it be to be able to do a full scale wetlab exercise in diybio style? Any suitably motivated person would be able to do a biology related research on his or her own. Well, it's already possible actually. Anyone can learn minimal amount of python coding and run BLAST interface through the internet by connecting to GenBank. It's diy bioinformatics and there are some people making noticeable contribution to the field by working with a laptop and minimal scripts.
I see two main problems at being able to run a diybio class though. The first is the relative ignorance of the target audience. Any diybio class would be targeted at novices with no background in academic research. I'm fine with that. I am however, worried about the kind of people who have preconceived notions of what diybio is/should be. There are so many people out there who can't tell the difference between reading stuff on computer screen and actually researching something in academic capacity. It's easy to teach something to people who don't know. It might even be fun. But attempting to teach something to someone who already thinks he/she knows everything there is to know about the subject is painful both for teacher and the student. It's very disheartening to see people who cannot tell the difference between studying and glossing over textbooks.
The second problem is the usual. The need for materials and resources for diybio. It's very difficult, perhaps impossible to grab hold of basic biobrick materials, at least any organization that is not sanctioned by the local government as an educational institution. There will be a lot of red tapes to jump through if I were to pursue an actual wetlab project.
On lighter note, I finally got the java based irc client working on my blackberry. Apparently the program can run on 'regular' cellphones as well since it's completely based on java architecture. Maybe I should give it a try on some of my older cellphones as well. I'm having a bit of fun speaking to the peeps at phys lab and funcom server people trying to solve the arg puzzles. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Life, typing, and Monday
For starters, I almost electrocuted myself in the shower today. Apparently it's about time I get myself a new electric razor. Another expense in my book that I really don't want to afford myself. I have books to buy for crying out loud. I think I have close to, or maybe more than a hundred books and other related stuff on my amazon wish list. Will I ever get through them all? I'm trying but it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
It's been a long time since I've written something for the web on my laptop keyboard. Of course, I try to write everything for the wordpress blog while I'm in front of an actual computer, but then I only write around once a week for that place. I think most of the past entries for my livejournal blog had been written on either my cellphone using the T9 input or on my blackberry using the posterous service. It's a real nice pastime really. Doing bits of writing while on the go, like waiting for the subway to arrive or in middle of waiting my computer to finish some huge work related stuff. Some people play games when they have spare time, I write meaningless ponderings on my mobile.
I was a little worried that I'd have forgotten how comfortable the thinkpad keyboards are due to so much blackberry writing. I'm rather happy to find that my fingers travel just as fast and accurate as before. Blackberry keyboards are definitely a step above that of T9 input in regular cellphones and even that of most touchscreen input systems, but they just can't replicate the feeling of using a real, full sized keyboard in terms of tactile feedback, speed and accuracy. It's much less strain on my fingers an wrists as well, meaning that I can write for longer periods of time without needing a rest.
While I find that I do my best creative works while I'm using pencil and paper, there is certain joy in using a good keyboard to jot my thoughts down in very instantaneous manner. Sure, the pencil and paper format affords me much more freedom in terms of the things I can do with them. I can draw, write in every language I can think of, including made up ones, I can rite and solve equations, and I can fold the paper and turn it into a neat origami bird containing all sorts of musings and ideas (it would be cool to be able to have a jar full of paper birds, each of them containing ingenious musings and stories). It's only that keyboards afford certain degree of spontaneity within the act of writing that's almost on the equal footing with being able to play an instrument. I type away at the keyboard inscribed with symbols of the alphabet and they in turn form patterns recorded down onto the screen as digitized information, to be recalled later into memory, evoking all sorts of thoughts and images into the reader's mind. Why would the act be any different from playing an actual instrument, other then the dilation of time involved in the act of recording the experience to be enjoyed later on? When I think about it, all forms of art I can think of seem to rely on a few fundamental and shared characteristics. Bringing together of random components into a coherent pattern by the artists' imagination, and recording of the process of the pattern so that the impression of the pattern can be recalled in minds of outside audiences. It's all about forming coherence within the chaos of the world.
How is it that living systems are capable of forming such coherence within the universe they live in? What kind of laws govern the impulses behind the creation of such coherences? What is the mechanism behind the creation and why? Is it psychology? Is it physics? Freak accident common to biochemical organizations?
I have another Monday off, so I will be spending the day at the central library in the city studying, getting stuff done that should have been done a while ago. I will need to think of bunch of diybio stuff as usual, not to mention read through the text book 'biotechnology for beginners.' I still have something more concrete to do though. I will need to do some finishing touch on the mathematica model for the plasma simulation, write some blog posts, get through my mails, and most of all, finish the processing project I started almost a month ago.
I've been trying to write an engine in the processing language that would take DNA sequence input, reinterpret them as codon sequences and generate music and graphics/animation based on the sequence. It would be a cool little piece of software that I plan to submit for a little underground webzine. Maybe later on I can do a little web based service that would identify the user's single point mutations, cross reference it to the base human DNA sequences, and generate customized music/animation for the user to download. Imagine being able to see and hear the mathematical permutations of your own DNA sequences, each of them unique to the single individual. My rudimentary understanding of the processing language had been getting in the way (not to mention I don't know the first thing about music theory, nearly flunked my jazz class during high school days), but I think I'm about there. It also helps that the processing language itself is really easy to use, at least compared to most of the alternatives out there. Since the processing language itself is a slightly modified Java, I'm hoping I would be able to put the whole thing on the net with minimal modification.
There's something I'm worried about using my laptop in the library though. While the clickiness of the thinkpad keyboard is good for receiving tactile feedback through the fingers (in turn allowing me to get an intuitive feel for whether some key registered correctly or not), it does make that mechanical 'click' sound you hear with older keyboards, which is a big no no in a silent library reading room. I would have to pay more attention to how I type so that I don't make too much noise in there. I've already sort of gotten into trouble with keyboard noise already, I don't need another one.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
April fools
It was the April fool's day, and on this day I take particular pleasure in collecting especially crazy or delicious pieces of rumor, and help in spreading them through the channels of the social media like the twitter. Through some very strange course of events the April fools had become a sort of international past time, on the similar level as Christmas (itself derived from a pagan tradition, the birthday of Mithras, but that's a story for another time), celebrated in their sardonic and twisted methods on the global scale. People used to do some funny things for April 1st in Japan and Korea, and to lesser extent China. I guess we all look for excuses to have fun with each other. And with the outrageous growth of the power and reach of mass media with the advent of information technology, I think the tradition of the April fools day will grow into something very significant as the time goes on, something that might even make schools close down someday like it is with the Jewish holidays in NYC (seriously, what WASP thought they would have their public school system close down for the religion of ethnic minorities?).
I had some crazy workload for the day though. So I wasn't in any condition to do my typical info hunting and related propagation. There were a few tidbits I found delightful though. Like that CERN LHC collider piece. Anyone interested in keeping taps on physics news probably heard of it by now. Their April 1st joke was that LHC was in fact temporarily been closed down due to damage caused by appearance of black hole within the testing chambers. I think there were some number of poor souls who actually believed that one, before they realized that it was a piece for the April 1st. The amount of hype the largest science project in human history generated was really beyond expectation, in many parts thanks to the nut cases who probably doesn't know the difference between differential and integral calculus (you learn those, or at least passively browse through those topics in most high school curriculums btw).
Other than that, there also the news I got from the official blizzard home pages for the games Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2. For all their vaporware-ness, they do consistently keep updating their sites on the 4.01 day with crazy info and units, and they did not disappoint this year as well (SC2's last year 4.01 unit was minotaur in rocket suit).
Diablo 3 homepage showcased a new character class archivist, with spectacular powers like power to throw books and shush the monsters to death. Oh, and apparently the archivist have a lot of customized conversation options as well, ranging from 'in my days it was black and white' to 'where's my pants' and 'where am I?' I'm thinking the eponymous oldman Cain (stayawhile and listen guy) is the archetype for the class design. Those of you who know me that I go a little crazy over books. The central library in the city and various independent bookstores are actually my favorite places in the city, and I have a habit of buying some crazy amount of books at once, usually going over a hundred dollars per purchase. And I still suffer from the chronic lack of reading material even in the busiest of days... So I think the archivist might actually be a cool idea, if the guys at Blizzard (Blizzard or Blizzard North?) can take the time to flesh out the class a little, maybe turn it into a little hidden class or something...
For all the misinformation surrounding the D3, I'm really looking forward to that one, especially now that the diablo world seem to be expanding a lot more, like the metropolis of mages and the return to the town of Tristram and the exploration of the catacombs beneath the Cathedral. I still remember the times I spent with my friends turning that place inside out in the original diablo. Compared to the rather eerie and hopeless atmosphere of the original diablo the diablo 2 was something of a cakewalk, a relative disappointment. It was almost physically impossible to die in the beginning stages of the game unless you were really terrible at clicking your mouse, and that cut into a lot of fun...
The starcraft 2 homepage also showcases a new awesome unit for the terrans, which will actually be integrated into the mapbuilder program that will be provided along with the game (just like it is with the minotaur units). The new unit (or should I call it upgrade?) is called the Terra-Tron. It's a ginormous robot built by combining the buildings of a standard terran base, with laser canons, machine guns, and who knows what else. The unit is an obvious throwback to the eponymous voltron and other Japanese robot anime (sc series give a lot of nod to the anime fandom. As is with many other U.S. made computer games I guess. Did you know that in the special thanks section of the credit for the game Sacrifice the dev team mentions 'Escaflowne'?). I don't know about the sc 2 game itself, but the community created content for the sc2 game will be amazing. There's no doubt about it. Maybe that's the main purpose of the sc2 dev team after all. I expect to see robot to robot fighting in futuristic city maps, with tanks and other standard armored stuff you might expect to see in Masamune Shiro's works.
I had some crazy workload for the day though. So I wasn't in any condition to do my typical info hunting and related propagation. There were a few tidbits I found delightful though. Like that CERN LHC collider piece. Anyone interested in keeping taps on physics news probably heard of it by now. Their April 1st joke was that LHC was in fact temporarily been closed down due to damage caused by appearance of black hole within the testing chambers. I think there were some number of poor souls who actually believed that one, before they realized that it was a piece for the April 1st. The amount of hype the largest science project in human history generated was really beyond expectation, in many parts thanks to the nut cases who probably doesn't know the difference between differential and integral calculus (you learn those, or at least passively browse through those topics in most high school curriculums btw).
Other than that, there also the news I got from the official blizzard home pages for the games Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2. For all their vaporware-ness, they do consistently keep updating their sites on the 4.01 day with crazy info and units, and they did not disappoint this year as well (SC2's last year 4.01 unit was minotaur in rocket suit).
Diablo 3 homepage showcased a new character class archivist, with spectacular powers like power to throw books and shush the monsters to death. Oh, and apparently the archivist have a lot of customized conversation options as well, ranging from 'in my days it was black and white' to 'where's my pants' and 'where am I?' I'm thinking the eponymous oldman Cain (stayawhile and listen guy) is the archetype for the class design. Those of you who know me that I go a little crazy over books. The central library in the city and various independent bookstores are actually my favorite places in the city, and I have a habit of buying some crazy amount of books at once, usually going over a hundred dollars per purchase. And I still suffer from the chronic lack of reading material even in the busiest of days... So I think the archivist might actually be a cool idea, if the guys at Blizzard (Blizzard or Blizzard North?) can take the time to flesh out the class a little, maybe turn it into a little hidden class or something...
For all the misinformation surrounding the D3, I'm really looking forward to that one, especially now that the diablo world seem to be expanding a lot more, like the metropolis of mages and the return to the town of Tristram and the exploration of the catacombs beneath the Cathedral. I still remember the times I spent with my friends turning that place inside out in the original diablo. Compared to the rather eerie and hopeless atmosphere of the original diablo the diablo 2 was something of a cakewalk, a relative disappointment. It was almost physically impossible to die in the beginning stages of the game unless you were really terrible at clicking your mouse, and that cut into a lot of fun...
The starcraft 2 homepage also showcases a new awesome unit for the terrans, which will actually be integrated into the mapbuilder program that will be provided along with the game (just like it is with the minotaur units). The new unit (or should I call it upgrade?) is called the Terra-Tron. It's a ginormous robot built by combining the buildings of a standard terran base, with laser canons, machine guns, and who knows what else. The unit is an obvious throwback to the eponymous voltron and other Japanese robot anime (sc series give a lot of nod to the anime fandom. As is with many other U.S. made computer games I guess. Did you know that in the special thanks section of the credit for the game Sacrifice the dev team mentions 'Escaflowne'?). I don't know about the sc 2 game itself, but the community created content for the sc2 game will be amazing. There's no doubt about it. Maybe that's the main purpose of the sc2 dev team after all. I expect to see robot to robot fighting in futuristic city maps, with tanks and other standard armored stuff you might expect to see in Masamune Shiro's works.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Blackberry, girl genius
Today had been one seriously exhausting day. I dropped into my bed almost as soon as I got home and slept like a log. I haven't felt this tired for a long time now. It's a real shame too, since today was the day of the secret science club, on the topic of Mars exploration. I just can't understand why I'm feeling this tired though, I don't think I've done anything that I usually don't.
I woke up around 10:30 pm. Since I got to home and to bed around 5 I'd say I slept close to six hours. I didn't eat anything yet so I might as well get out of bed now and grab something to eat. Sleeping early and staying awake throughout the night, this cannot be a healthy lifestyle.
I was rather hesitant in getting out of the bed though. There still was a little hope in my heart that I might be able to go back to sleep and stay more or less unconscious throughout the night. So I turned on my blackberry and browsed through the net for something to read/play on the net. It turns out that there is a version of simcity for blackberry devices, probably based off the released code (as a donation for OLPC) of the original simcity game. I was rather excited until I found out the game would cost about 14 dollars. Seriously, 14 dollars for a mobile game whose original code was written in the year I was born? Ridiculous!
I continued my search and that's pretty much the state of blackberry software ecosystem right now. Over charging for old and outdated softwares, simply because there just aren't too many softwares on the market itself. The software market for blackberry is ages beyond that of iphone or even that of android, and RIM should really pay attention to it if they are even moderately interested in putting bb into the public pocket. This trend is somewhat strange though, considering that the sdk for blackberry os is available on the net for free, and from what I see developing for bb devices would be a lot more easier than developing for symbian os, since bb os is entirely based off java with a bit of difference in byte code compilation (not to mention who have to fork a fortune over if you want to develop for symbian, something Nokia is trying to amend). I guess the bb people just don't game much? It's somewhat understandable, since I read and write email when I'm bored with bb as well, instead of running some sort of game.
What I don't understand is the lack of two of the most fundamental gaming programs that's almost universally available on practically every single mobile devices with keyboards. Interactive fiction interpreter program like the frotz and old school rogue-like games, like moria and nethack. I would think that the keyboard based interface of the blackberry devices would be perfect for playing those two types of games, not to mention the small sizes and relatively low complexity of the games themselves that would lend well to modification and porting. Apparently someone has time to program a poker/texas hold'em game with full graphical interfaces from scratch but don't have the time to port over existing code. It's really a nonsense.
Sick of looking at overpriced and crappy games for the device (although I must give credit for the cool yellow pages/google apps/notepad with full spell checking/free spreadsheet for bb), I hunted down an ongoing web comic series titled 'girl genius.'
Girl genius is a web comic set in fantasy/steampunk alternate world where there are people called 'sparks' who are capable of utilizing all sort of crazy techniques to build lumbering steam robots, death rays, clockwork devices of nefarious purpose, and floating castle/airships. In the beginning the art style put me off somewhat, but I've already grown to see them as unique rather than off-putting. The years of reading Japanese manga really seem to have done a number to my sense of aesthetics, with their impeccably polished and proportioned characters (even the homeless are clean and well proportioned!). I should really watch out for that.
Girl genius has one of the most intricately developed characters/world and storylines I've ever seen, and I'm amazed that they are releasing the graphic novel onto the net for us to view for free. Even if they stick with pay-to-view or paper only publishing model they would be able to make a tidy living with the girl genius universe (it's that good), so this isn't some publicity stunt.
The world of magical steampunk where people scream 'for science' as a catch phrase in popular stage plays, with mad scientists roaming around every corner? Jesus christ it must be like heaven (except for the whole death and misery part of the world torn by conflict between impossibly powerful princes and secret societies).
What if I could combine all of those lovely worlds into one cohesive form? The library of babel, the steampunk universe akin to the girl genius world, and others... It would be quite exciting. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
I woke up around 10:30 pm. Since I got to home and to bed around 5 I'd say I slept close to six hours. I didn't eat anything yet so I might as well get out of bed now and grab something to eat. Sleeping early and staying awake throughout the night, this cannot be a healthy lifestyle.
I was rather hesitant in getting out of the bed though. There still was a little hope in my heart that I might be able to go back to sleep and stay more or less unconscious throughout the night. So I turned on my blackberry and browsed through the net for something to read/play on the net. It turns out that there is a version of simcity for blackberry devices, probably based off the released code (as a donation for OLPC) of the original simcity game. I was rather excited until I found out the game would cost about 14 dollars. Seriously, 14 dollars for a mobile game whose original code was written in the year I was born? Ridiculous!
I continued my search and that's pretty much the state of blackberry software ecosystem right now. Over charging for old and outdated softwares, simply because there just aren't too many softwares on the market itself. The software market for blackberry is ages beyond that of iphone or even that of android, and RIM should really pay attention to it if they are even moderately interested in putting bb into the public pocket. This trend is somewhat strange though, considering that the sdk for blackberry os is available on the net for free, and from what I see developing for bb devices would be a lot more easier than developing for symbian os, since bb os is entirely based off java with a bit of difference in byte code compilation (not to mention who have to fork a fortune over if you want to develop for symbian, something Nokia is trying to amend). I guess the bb people just don't game much? It's somewhat understandable, since I read and write email when I'm bored with bb as well, instead of running some sort of game.
What I don't understand is the lack of two of the most fundamental gaming programs that's almost universally available on practically every single mobile devices with keyboards. Interactive fiction interpreter program like the frotz and old school rogue-like games, like moria and nethack. I would think that the keyboard based interface of the blackberry devices would be perfect for playing those two types of games, not to mention the small sizes and relatively low complexity of the games themselves that would lend well to modification and porting. Apparently someone has time to program a poker/texas hold'em game with full graphical interfaces from scratch but don't have the time to port over existing code. It's really a nonsense.
Sick of looking at overpriced and crappy games for the device (although I must give credit for the cool yellow pages/google apps/notepad with full spell checking/free spreadsheet for bb), I hunted down an ongoing web comic series titled 'girl genius.'
Girl genius is a web comic set in fantasy/steampunk alternate world where there are people called 'sparks' who are capable of utilizing all sort of crazy techniques to build lumbering steam robots, death rays, clockwork devices of nefarious purpose, and floating castle/airships. In the beginning the art style put me off somewhat, but I've already grown to see them as unique rather than off-putting. The years of reading Japanese manga really seem to have done a number to my sense of aesthetics, with their impeccably polished and proportioned characters (even the homeless are clean and well proportioned!). I should really watch out for that.
Girl genius has one of the most intricately developed characters/world and storylines I've ever seen, and I'm amazed that they are releasing the graphic novel onto the net for us to view for free. Even if they stick with pay-to-view or paper only publishing model they would be able to make a tidy living with the girl genius universe (it's that good), so this isn't some publicity stunt.
The world of magical steampunk where people scream 'for science' as a catch phrase in popular stage plays, with mad scientists roaming around every corner? Jesus christ it must be like heaven (except for the whole death and misery part of the world torn by conflict between impossibly powerful princes and secret societies).
What if I could combine all of those lovely worlds into one cohesive form? The library of babel, the steampunk universe akin to the girl genius world, and others... It would be quite exciting. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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