Archives for January 2006
23 January
"Autonomous Non-Violent Agents"
Via robots.net: War Protestor Robots for the G8 Summit.
From the project web site (loose translation from Spanish): "They do not need to eat, and they need neither training nor motivation."
What's next? Robot police to make sure they stay non-violent? Robot diplomats to participate in the summit?
21 January
iLife 06, Photocasting, and photos.case.edu
I installed iLife 06 on my Mac today. The first new feature I tried was the "photocasting" subscription support in iPhoto. It works beautifully with the photos.case.edu RSS feeds - photos, titles, and descriptions all display correctly in iPhoto. Just select File > Subscribe to Photocast, and then paste the feed URI (such as http://photos.case.edu/photos/all/rss) into the text field that appears.
You can use the photocast as the source for a screensaver, just as with any other iPhoto album. I'm not sure if the photos are updated when iPhoto is not running, though.
16 January
Weighing in on the Case Daily
I've been following the recent discussion (1, 2, 3) regarding the new Case Daily email with much interest. Overall, I think the Case Daily is a good thing because it centralizes all-campus email, which will probably result in increased uniformity and decreased volume of campus-wide email announcements. The Case Daily isn't perfect, though. Read on for my chief complaints about the mail, and some suggestions for improvement.
wiki.case.edu favicon
This morning I checked the Case wiki's Recent Changes page to see what happened while I was away. I was surprised and flattered to see my "puzzle piece" favicon in use - I hadn't noticed it there before. Thank you to whoever was responsible! (Greg or Jeremy, was that you?)
Paul Farmer lecture update
Well, I didn't write this as soon as I promised in my previous entry. Winter break is a time for laziness, I suppose.
I attended Paul Farmer's lecture (audio recording) at Calvin College last Monday. Dr. Farmer talked a bit about his current work in Rwanda, but the main thrust of his remarks was the assertion that in order to achieve his goal - the establishment of access to quality health care as a basic human right - a global movement of millions of people sharing his vision will be necessary. He compared his campaign to what he considers the first global human rights movement: that of slavery abolitionists in Britain and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. He also spoke about the value of using visual imagery to make an emotional appeal when attempting to build such a movement.
9 January
Paul Farmer lecture
Paul Farmer is going to give a lecture at Calvin College at 12:30 this afternoon. I am planning to attend - look for an entry about it later today. For any who are interested but are not currently in Grand Rapids, Michigan, there is a webcast available.