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GracefulFlavor

Purveyor and Connoisseur of Fine Sarcasm and Analysis


ExtropySeptember 9 2009

Extropy is neither wave nor particle, nor pure energy. It is an immaterial force that is very much like information. Since extropy is defined as negative entropy — the reversal of disorder — it is, by definition, an increase in order. But what is order? Despite our intuitive sense, we lack a good operational definition of order, which seems to be tied up with complexity (see

Ordained Becoming). For simple physical systems, the concepts of thermodynamics suffice, but for the real world of cucumbers, brains, books, and self-driving trucks, we don’t have useful metrics for extropy. The best we can say is that extropy resembles, but is not equivalent to, information.
via kk.org

Long and complex article, but absolutely fascinating. I suggest reading the whole thing.

Posted via web from Jeff Ventura


Palm Pre sales dramatically below targets?September 8 2009

Town Hall Investment Research analyst David Eller asserted in a research note this morning that sales of the Pre “are continuing to slow,” and “likely will come in dramatically below” Sprint’s

(S) reputed target of 1 million to 1.5 million customers for the year.

I can echo John Gruber’s observation that I have not yet seen a Palm Pre in use in real life.

Posted via web from Jeff Ventura


Firefox : Reduce RAM usageSeptember 8 2009

  1. Go to about:config
  2. Right click, select New, select Boolean
  3. Enter the preference name “config.trim_on_minimize”
  4. Double click “config.trim_on_minimize” to set this value to true
  5. Restart Firefox

Firefox will free up memory when the application is minimized.

This is a great tip, as FF memory usage is one of the biggest issues on my Vista PC here in the office.

Posted via web from Jeff Ventura


Speaking of fundamental shiftsSeptember 8 2009

Three years ago, the debate was that social media was only good for those who wanted to follow what complete strangers were eating for lunch. And there may have been some truth to that, back in the inception days.

Today, people who still believe that are the ones who don’t understand — or care to understand — social media’s role in modern life. It’s to the point that when I hear someone say Facebook and Twitter are just toys for bored kids, it’s not even worth the energy to engage them. Because to maintain that stance today given the massive mainstream attention these platforms have received, there must be a willful, constant vigilance to remain uninformed.

The video was created by Socialnomics, and while it’s likely a self-serving mechanism, the trend it explores is impossible to ignore.

(Via Jeff M.)

Posted via web from Jeff Ventura


It may get quiet around here. Then again, it may not.August 28 2009

I'll be in Arizona next week, so not sure how much I'll be able to post. 

If I'm able to post, however, it will be because I'm slowly moving over to posterous as my main blogging engine.  In fact, if you're reading this on GracefulFlavor, it's because posterous fed it here.

Eventually, the domain gracefulflavor.net might be redirected over to my posterous blog, depending on how the experiment goes.  For the time being, however, the domain will continue to point to the WordPress site.

Posterous allows posting by email (which is how I'm writing this), which is fantastic and easier than I've ever dreamed.  Because of this, I might be able to get some blogging done next week.

Then again, I might not, depending on my schedule.

So there.  A completely circular, indecisive, non-post to tell you that I may or may not be posting much next week.  It's like recursive irony, only lamer.

Posted via email from Jeff Ventura