Here’s the first promo for Issues the Series, a new web series that is starting soon. Check it out.

Youtube Link

Around this time each year I should be in NYC being accosted by gadget sellers. But unfortunately that is not to be; DigitalLife was canceled for this year. They didn’t think they could put a good show together so they gave up and turned it into a gaming event. I sure will miss it. I will especially miss that Napster booth from either last year or two years ago. The nicest thing was having my very own tech convention on the east coast.

A toast, to DigitalLife. You will be missed.

I was just reading the first chapter of John Battelle’s “The Search” and he proposes a future where artificial intelligence is realized as an extension of search; coming from the breakthroughs in web search. It would be simple create a bot that would search the Internet for answers to any questions posed to it in a Turing Test (see definition). And if the answers happen to come out in a natural manner the tester could be fooled into thinking the bot is a human. Of course, this doesn’t really solve the problem of AI. It passes the Turing test, but it isn’t actually intelligent. Though it can learn from humans, it wouldn’t know which answers available on the Internet are correct and which aren’t.

My other idea for passing the Turing test is to create an AI wiki. Where people submit information in a specific format (noun + verb for example). The AI bot then uses NLP, Natural Language Processing, to parse a given question and look up the corresponding answer in the wiki database. The wiki angle would allow the populations of the world to contribute to the bot’s wealth of knowledge. This would be more precise than using the entire Internet as a database, but it would take time and effort to be able to answer any question imaginable in any language. Is anyone already doing this?

The Threadless back to school sale is back. Prices have recently gone up since they switched to better-quality shirts, so it’s a $12 sale this time around. Hit ‘em up for some nice shirts. I know I will. Sale should end soon. Possibly by September 7th, but don’t delay.

Threadless Sale!

I was just watching the Suze Orman show and she made it very clear not to co-sign a loan for another person. She has said this often and it is an important point that I thought I would share here. If you co-sign a loan for someone you are vouching for them and taking the responsibility. The person would not have gotten a loan otherwise if it wasn’t for you. If they default on the loan they have no responsibility and it will hurt you and your credit. So don’t get yourself stuck in this mess and learn to say no.

There is all this talk about the Internet overtaking other technologies and reducing the need for a personal computer. I don’t believe it. But again, what do I know? Ten years ago people were full of new ideas but the public wasn’t ready for them. Now we have less kids going to college for computers and all of them are joined at the hip to their texting/twittering/facebooking cellphone/iphone/pda. Which in and of itself is entirely odd. You would think that the people who use technology the most would see its importance and be interested in creating the next generation. But they aren’t. We have created a generation of self-absorbed consumers who have little interest in creating anything other than an entirely useless Youtube video.

It’s easy to forget that the Internet only really began to rise 14 years ago with the introduction of Netscape Navigator. I was too young to appreciate it at the time, or to even really know about it, but if you think about it some of the biggest technologies we take for granted now were only created in the last 10 to 20 years. It makes me wonder about what is next and what challenges lie ahead. If the creation of Netscape gave birth to the Internet, it is now a child going to Kindergarten. What happens when the Internet enters High School? And then college? What will the Internet look like as an adult? Will it be well-adjusted or not? Will we look on our parenting with a proud feeling and fond memories, or will we be ashamed of ourselves?

Today I passed a bunch of people with signs reading things like “Honk if you support our troops.” I was caught off guard and not used to honking when people show me a sign, but I definitely support the troops. I’ve been thinking about it ever since and wishing I honked. Consider this my apology to all those troops out there who I wish the best and I hope they come home soon.

Go check out America Supports You.

Need an idea for a gift for your father? Father’s Day is coming up fast. Only a week away on Sunday, June 15. Amazon.com has created a page with some gift ideas. Click the banner ad below.

I started thinking about cell shading tonight and then followed a tutorial I found online for Photoshop (link to tutorial). In the end it came out different because I liked step 4 better alone. I might develop my Photoshop skills in my free time and post the results here.