10 minutes, 2 ideas, 1 man, and a whole lot of political change

With my academic background, I am quite familiar with the writings of Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford and the author of such books as “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace,” “The Future of Ideas” and “Free Culture.” He writes about what I’m most interested in: how technology (ie, the Internet) impacts society (in his case, through a legal lens).

So I was quite surprised (and somewhat intrigued) to read the other day that Lessig is considering a run to replace recently deceased Congressman Tom Lantos of California. Lessig may not have much of a political background, but the man is damn smart and has some great ideas about what is wrong with DC. It might be refreshing to have someone like him stirring the pot in Washington.

Lessig has launched a website devoted to his campaign consideration and his “Change Congress” movement. He’s also posted a 10-minute video (seen below) which summarizes his beliefs on the inherent problems of the current system and why he’s considering this run for Congress.

I may need to change professions, now that I know I’m a psychic (at least when it comes to DVD turf wars)

The battle royale is over and the victor has been chosen. Not since the Sony-Betamax showdown have consumer electronics fought so bravely to win dominance over the market. But after months of indecision, we can finally announce our winner: Blu-ray high definition DVDs have vanquished HD DVDs.

And who predicted this? Why, me of course. I think it was the obvious choice as soon as they announced PS3’s would contain a Blu-ray player, but apparently some others out there are not quite as quick at these things. And on top of that, Warner Bros. said in January they would only release their films on Blu-ray. If that wasn’t the final nail in the coffin, I don’t know what else could be.

So what caused this tipping point in favor of Blu-ray? Today, Toshiba revealed they will no longer make HD DVD players, thus effectively handing victory to Sony and Blu-ray. Luckily for me, I am typically not an early adopter for this very reason. At minimum, buying the technology too early can cause headaches when rebates are offered just a few months after the product is released or having to pay for upgrades to the software. At the worst end, you’re stuck with an expensive gadget and a few movies, and you can’t buy anything else. AND, no one will want to buy your now useless piece of electronics. Of course, it isn’t that expensive anymore, with the price of the players plummeting to just over $100 in many cases. Maybe now IS the time to buy one so you can show it off to your friends in 20 years as a collector’s item.

Dear childhood, Why can’t I come stay with you forever?

Have you ever had one of those moments of overwhelming nostalgia? You know, when you smell a favorite food from your childhood, see a cartoon for the first time in 15 years, or read your nephew a book that you had forgotten was one of your favorites as a child?

If not, it’s quite a powerful moment. And I just had one. In fact, my stomach clenched, my eyes almost teared up and I experienced a powerful wave of sadness for the briefest of seconds as I realized I had forgotten an important part of my childhood. It certainly is trivial by adult standards, but I remember it being a very crucial component to me at age 7.

What could have caused this response, you ask? Why it’s no one other than Spot the Dog!

I saw this picture today in one of the blogs I regularly read, and was immediately transported back to my childhood when I owned this exact stuffed animal. I somehow had managed to get a piece of gum stuck in Spot’s fur and was bemoaning the fact that he’d never been 100% clean again (as I tried in vain to pick out all of the offending gum). I remember he always had a little spot on the back of him where a small amount of hardened gum remained.

Now, I’m not the type of person who remembers my childhood with much clarity – in fact, there are whole portions of my adolescent years I’ve tried to block out – so this came as quite a surprise. Spot had been out of my head for years, and suddenly I was assaulted by a specific memory within an instant of seeing that picture. I just wish there were easier ways of harnessing all this data stored deep in the depths of those filing cabinets in our head.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with childhood memories?

New blog post on gnovis: Howard Rheingold’s smart mobs take on the FARC

Check out my latest musings over at gnovis on the recent Facebook-organized protests in Colombia and around the world.

Picture of the day: I think I need to drop out of grad school and start a Nintendo-based baking business

First I found my dream wedding cake (that is if I ever actually got married – ha!). Then I discovered how to make “8-bit cookies” like Tetris boards (see my blog post from last month). And now, well, I only have one word for my latest discovery: W-O-W.

As you may know, I am an avid baker, even going so far as to contemplate a career if I hadn’t decided to sink my life savings into adding a “Dr.” to my name (I mean, really though, who doesn’t want to be called Doctor? And Dr. Vitak has such a fabulous ring to it.).

Well, all these delicious baked good based off Nintendo games I keep finding online could give me that push I need to change careers. Well, not really, but I do want to try to make these cupcakes. It actually wouldn’t be too difficult — more time-consuming than anything else. Maybe in four months or so, when I actually have a minute of free time, I’ll give them a whirl.

[Thanks Boing Boing!]

Picture of the Day: Possibly one of the weirdest mashups ever

So mashups. Usually, this involves taking two complementary items, whether it is software or music, and squishing them together to form a new item. For example, as I mentioned yesterday, Google Maps and Twitter mashed up for Super Tuesday. Pretty cool, eh?

Sometimes, however, mashups can occur between two completely unrelated items. This usually doesn’t work out. Peanut butter and dog food, for example, do not equal a delicious mashup. Here I present you with one of the few examples I have ever come across that successfully mashes two unrelated items so well that the person decided to ink it on his/her respective body FOREVER.

Hello Kitty, meet Darth Vader:

Now the only question that remains is what to call this adorable little death-bringer. Hello Vader? Darth Kitty? Decisions decisions.

Google Maps/Twitter Mashup for Super Tuesday is actually pretty awesome

Everyone knows Google Maps, and I’ve blogged multiple times about Twitter, the insta-status social networking site. Well, these two normally unrelated sites have joined forces for Super Tuesday to let consumers see just what people from around the world are twitting on this most massive of primary/caucus/pick the next US president days. Check out the site here to watch new comments pop up every 10 seconds or so.

NASA must have seen my blog and decided to copy me…dirty bastards

My inner science geek is doing a happy dance, as I just discovered an awesome website hosted by NASA that features a picture of the day (not unlike myself, when I feel so inclined to post my pictures of the day). Anyway, as expected, the site uploads a new celestial image each day, and I must say, some of them are mind-blowing: exploding stars, solar eclipses by other planets, distant galaxies, and the like. When I see pictures like this, I tend to think space is much better looking than Earth (sorry Captain Planet).

Here’s the picture of the day from Saturday, where you can see Venus *and* Jupiter on the horizon at dawn. So awesome.

MySpace user urges others to drink the Kool-Aid … and boy does it taste bad!

Today (Wednesday) is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day. Incidentally, it is also the same day “Crazy” King George (George III) died, most likely from syphilis; the day Kansas officially became a state in the great U-S-of-A; the day the 49ers became the first football team to win five NFL championships (Steve Young + Jerry Rice = totally unstoppable); and the birthdays of Oprah and Heather Graham. So MySpace haters can take faith that they share their special day with STDs, tornadoes, gold, the rich, and the whorish.

ANYWAY, I think I might have a point here (then again, maybe I don’t). So all the shenanigans began about 10 days ago when a blogger decided he hated MySpace enough to deactivate his account. Rather than just click the button when prompted, “Are you sure you want to deactivate this account and lose touch with your 200 million friends who don’t want to lose you to the evils of the real world?” said blogger decides he wants to go out Jonestown-style and get as many followers as possible to follow his lead.

I apologize…wait, no, I don’t apologize. Why do people need a Day (capital D) to deactivate their account on a social networking site? Has the power of the individual to think and act on his own disappeared as we all become inextricably linked to everyone everywhere around the world? (Thanks to the internet, we might only need four degrees of separation by this point.) I just think this delete you MySpace account day is so silly. Two thousand people deactivating their accounts on the same day is small change when you have 100,000,000+ users (in case you care, that would be a user loss of a .oooo2%, or something like that). So, honestly people, whether it’s 2000 or 10,000 (which I highly doubt), I don’t think your little fly will be noticed on the MySpace beast.

A word of advice. You don’t like your MySpace account? You don’t use it anymore, don’t like privacy breaches, don’t want random people knowing your favorite movie is Gigli? THEN JUST DELETE IT. There’s no need to make a spectacle of the event.

Man, people are just getting way too involved with their SNS profiles. This is not a romantic relationship everyone. It’s just a webpage.