1. Internet or the internet?

    The kind of ‘formal’ language interogations that makes a lot of sense to me or at least it draws my attention a lot lately – like how do you spell/capitalise/prefix the word internet:

    the internet
    internet
    Internet
    the Internet

    now i will wonder about two more parameters: in or on.

    * Via

    “i work in ubiquitous computing”
    Often bemused by the “on the internet” versus “in the internet” debate, it’s intriguing that the only person we can find who refers to “i work in ubiquitous computing” was late Mark Weiser (see on his website).

    ** Christophe Guignard from Fabric.ch during a talk by Eric Sadin (Times of the Signs) once noted the different spelling of connection (physically attached) and connexion (close but not touching eachother) in french and english.



  2. UTF8 characters

    ♥ ✈ ☺ ♬ ☑ ♠ ☎ ☻ ♫ ☒ ♤ ☤ ☹ ♪ ♀ ✩ ✉ ☠ ✔ ♂ ★ ✇ ♺ ✖ ♨ ❦ ☁ ✌ ♛ ❁ ☪ ☂ ✏ ♝ ❀ ☭ ☃ ☛ ♞ ✿ ☮ ☼ ☚ ♘ ✾ ☯ ☾ ☝ ♖ ✽ ✝ ☄ ☟ ♟ ✺ ☥ ✂ ✍ ♕ ✵ ☉ ☇ ☈ ☡ ✠ ☊ ☋ ☌ ☍ ♁ ✇ ☢ ☣ ✣ ✡ ☞ ☜ ✜ ✛ ❥ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ☬ ☫ ☨ ☧ ☦ ✁ ✃ ✄ ✎ ✐ ❂ ❉ ❆ ♅ ♇ ♆ ♙ ♟ ♔ ♕ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞

    * i really like those utf 8 symbols – it feels like language shortcuts.



  3. API and TOS for humans

    I just twitted “an #API for humans” ( http://twitter.com/jrgd/statuses/839669544 ); one could extend this to a TOS.
    API stands for Application Program Interface, a set of instruction to interact with a distant application. TOS stands for Terms Of Services, which defines what one can expect from an online service, more generally, the TOS list the rules within an online community. Applying those terms to human interaction may seems weird but it’s interesting to see that somehow it is what could be called Politeness, Respect and civilised exchange. Maybe sometimes, this should a bit more formalised, written black on white, carefully respected to ensure all parts of an interaction can expect a decent way of communicating.



  4. links for 2008-04-10



  5. links for 2008-04-07



  6. links for 2008-03-17