On Twitter

Twitter is like a deranged search engine that just keeps spitting out a bunch of random inanities whether you submit a query or not.

Variations on a Theme as the Crux of Creativity

Designer Andrew Lee and I had a discussion last Saturday night on the nature of musical creativity, and I was reminded of cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter's ideas on the topic. I'm attaching an essay I read back in high school entitled, "Variations on a Theme as the Crux of Creativity." I copied the pages from Amazon's Look-Inside-this-book feature, so before you get all huffy about copyright infringement, these pages are already freely available online over at Amazon. A few pages are missing unfortunately, but don't blame me--buy the book if you want more.

Hofstadter_Crux.pdf
from Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern

Douglas R. Hofstadter directs The Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition (aka the Fluid Analogies Research Group, or simply FARG) which is an interdisciplinary center for research in cognitive science. CRCC research focuses mainly on emergent computational models of creative analogical thinking and its subcognitive substrate -- namely, fluid concepts. Several computer programs modeling the interplay between concepts and perception in the course of analogy-making have been developed; these include the Copycat and Tabletop programs. The Letter Spirit project, modeling the perception and creation of style in the world of letterforms, has now resulted in a Letter Spirit program capable of designing and evaluating gridfonts.

The group also conducts research (mostly non-computational) in a number of other areas of cognitive science, including error-making, creative translation, scientific discovery, musical composition, the comprehension and invention of jokes, the nature of sexist language and default imagery, philosophy of mind, and foundations of artificial intelligence.

G-Technology G|SAFE RAID1 Storage Solution

I've been using this G|SAFE 1 TB storage solution for several months and thought I'd post about it.

G-SAFE is a storage solution from G-Technology which safeguards your important digital photos, audio and video libraries by simultaneously writing to two independent hard disk drives providing instant back up of files as you save them. Unlike single drive backup systems, if a drive failure occurs your images are safe and accessible. G-SAFE features two removable drive modules for easy replacement of disk drives and off-site backup of data.

G-SAFE features high-speed FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 interfaces for universal connectivity to Mac's and PC's and two removable hard drives mated to a sophisticated hardware RAID 1 (mirroring) engine designed to ensure 24x7 data protection. A front panel LCD is used to configure and monitor the health of the system.

What's especially cool about this product is the easy way you can create backups of your data or offsite storage using a spare drive (G Technology provides a spare 1 TB drive for the unit for about $125). From the manual:

9. USING G-SAFE FOR OFFSITE DATA BACKUP
With the addition of a third drive module it is possible to add a greater level of protection by storing a copy of your data offsite. By rotating drive modules offsite at regular intervals you can always have a copy of your data safe and secure. The process is simple, however to avoid data loss be sure to follow these instructions carefully.

1. Turn off G-SAFE and remove the drive module you will take offsite using the provided key. (You can remove either drive)

2. Place the drive for offsite storage in the protective leather pouch (leather pouch is included with purchase of additional drive modules for G-SAFE)

3. Turn on G-SAFE (the alarm will sound and the display will indicate a MISSING drive)

Drive 1: OK
Drive 2: MISSING

4. Mute the alarm by pressing the “MUTE” button on the front panel.

5. Insert the target drive module while the unit is on. (This could be the drive module you had stored offsite)

6. G-SAFE will ask if you would like to rebuild the array. (In this case G-SAFE will rebuild from Drive 1 (top) to Drive 2 (bottom)

Rebuild Drv1->2?
ENT=Y ESC=N 0S

7. Push the ENT button to begin the process or ESC button to cancel (the process will automatically cancel in 10 seconds)

8. G-SAFE will now rebuild the data to the target drive.

Rebuilding...
Drv1 -> Drv2 00%

10. Once the rebuild is complete, the LCD panel will display the following message.

Drive 1: OK
Drive 2: OK

COUPON
I was able to get 10% discount of my purchase from G Technology using this coupon code:
FCPUG10OFF

3D infra-red cameras

The secret behind Google's book scanning project

Google created some seriously nifty infrared camera technology that detects the three-dimensional shape and angle of book pages when the book is placed in the scanner. This information is transmitted to the OCR software, which adjusts for the distortions and allows the OCR software to read text more accurately. No more broken bindings, no more inefficient glass plates.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/may/04/google-gadgets

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/04/google_book_scanning_patent/