tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52453432011-04-21T14:08:56.421-07:00Just mumblings and grumblings.Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.comBlogger91100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5245343.post-1134715159292029512005-12-15T22:25:00.000-08:002005-12-17T09:44:59.826-08:00

T-shirts are one of the more interesting forms of expressions in the current age. Where once we were required to actually stop and talk to each other to exchange political ideologies, favorite bands, and the occasional joke, we now simply emblazon our chests with a picture or slogan and broadcast it to the world. Perhaps it's just a symptom of our being bombarded with advertising since birth,

Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5245343.post-1120177048980571122005-06-30T17:02:00.000-07:002005-06-30T17:17:28.986-07:00

I've always liked internet polls. There's no more succinct or simple way to package so much information about what people are thinking and how they feel about it.Having written a lot of generic content-management code for Webvolver recently, I thought I'd take a stab at a public internet poll engine with some user-moderation features. I came up with this:StickyIssue.comIt's sort of an internet

Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5245343.post-1119927839053835502005-06-27T18:50:00.000-07:002005-06-27T20:05:48.256-07:00

I love an intelligent debate, especially with someone who's viewpoint is completely at odds with mine, but I've come across far too many political idiots on all sides of every argument lately, and I have to let off a little steam. Here's a short list of how to tell if you (or someone else) is a political idiot:Think about a political argument you feel very strongly about. Abortion, gun control,

Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5245343.post-1118587192565896322005-06-27T06:07:00.000-07:002005-06-27T16:59:45.090-07:00

Anyone who regularly visits Slashdot knows that it is a unique combination of profound commentary, hilarious quips, scathing wit, and what can only be described as textual brutality. One of the first true group blogs (dating from 1997), it serves up technology related news for the geek crowd to peruse and comment on.While it has improved over time, the formula is basically the same. Users submit

Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5245343.post-1118983518704486032005-06-16T19:09:00.000-07:002005-06-16T21:47:45.720-07:00

There are any number of opinions on who's right/wrong or winning/losing the current battle between the record industry and file sharers. But I can't help thinking everyone is missing the point a little. The recording industry as we know it is doomed, whether we like it or not.Why the Recording Industry Works NowThe recording industry works by signing artists, subsidizing the production,

Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5245343.post-1118430569555013392005-06-10T12:00:00.000-07:002005-06-16T10:23:27.486-07:00

The internet is a pretty amoral, often moronic, and sometimes scary place. Why should this be? Shouldn't the internet merely be a reflection of our society and culture onto a computer screen?Call me an optimist, but I'm not quite ready to buy the argument that 'people are amoral, moronic and scary'. I think it has more to do with anonymity, and anonymity leads to lack of consequences, and no

Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5245343.post-1118015622908310382005-06-05T16:49:00.000-07:002005-06-16T06:22:45.546-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks I've been nosing around the internet looking for places to announce my website (KindaKarma.com) and did a lot of musing about how people find things on the internet.When you really think about it, websites are a just a collection of isolated islands in a vast ocean of information. The island inhabitants build bridges from time to time from one island to another, but

Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5245343.post-1117985211358834262005-06-05T05:54:00.000-07:002005-06-06T17:07:08.566-07:00

I've long been interested in micropayments as a viable alternative to advertising on the internet. In this model, a website would charge a user pennies or even fractions of a penny to access its content, an aggregator would track all the pennies from all the websites a person visits, tack on a service charge, then send them a monthly bill.Sounds like a good idea, so why hasn't anybody done it?

Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5245343.post-919980462003-06-05T09:05:00.000-07:002005-06-06T22:02:40.303-07:00

I've written a recommendation system for music, movies, games, authors, and politicians (yeah, I know it's strange, but I figure people with similar taste in politics will have similar taste in media). It's in the vein of the systems used by Amazon and Netflix, but with a very different core algorithm, which I believe performs better.The system works by comparing users' ratings against each other

Robert Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801694404468287500noreply@blogger.com