I’m making a list. Checking it twice seemed excessive.
Average spending per person for Christmas, 2005: $942
Average spending for internet purchases, 2005: $1,498
Average amount spent by each person in my household: $800
Total amount spent on interfamily gifts: ~$6400
Total number of robotic or artificially intelligent gifts: 10
(Includes 4 remote controlled cars and 5 Aquapets)
% of my gifts [...]

From the Detroit News Online: Latest versions of robotic lawnmowers are pretty sharp
Once it is programmed, this is a tool that mows your lawn for the entire season requiring no involvement by you. It cuts the grass from 0.8 to 2.7 inches high and has mulching type blades so the finely cut clippings add the [...]

At Rose’s waffle party this Monday, Kyle asked me about what made Google special. I blathered for a minute about various things, but really, my eye was on the prize, and the prize was Kyle’s well-crafted waffles.
But so anyway, here’s a more complete answer. I was trying to say something along these lines, but I [...]

I’m working on the following children’s story. I will update this post as I complete the drawings.

W. V. O. Quine is my best friend.
Quine’s first names are Willard, Van, and Orman.
Quine’s friends call him ‘Van’.

Quine was born in Ohio. Quine studied with Whitehead to get his PhD.
Whitehead wrote Principia Mathematica with Russell.
Quine loves logic.

Quine studied [...]

I’m sure most of you have encountered this before, but if not, its worth the read.
From the late, great Douglas Adams: How to stop worrying and love the internet.
Because the Internet is so new we still don’t really understand what it is. We mistake it for a type of publishing or broadcasting, because that’s what [...]

I’ve found the buzzword I’ve been looking for. I’ve also found the people who have been doing research in my area, and they are all in Northern Europe. I wonder if it’s too late to move to Sweeden.
The term ’stigmergy’ was created by Grasse in the late 50’s, from the Greek stigmos meaning ‘pricking’ and [...]

Asimo hasn’t been in the news lately, so I thought we’d check up. Seeing him over summer break at Disneyland was the highlight of my trip back home. He is one of the most integrated and well-developed humanoid robots walking the earth today, and really serves as the most well-known of the celebots. He popped [...]

Some rumblings over at The Bellman about the lawsuit brought against Wikipedia. Saftey Neal quoted a News.com article with a bunch of analysts discussing the impossibility of a libel lawsuit against Wikipedia.
From CNet News.com: Is Wikipedia safe from libel liability?
Thanks to section 230 of the Federal Communications Decency Act (CDA), which became law in 1996, [...]

From Infoworld: Study: Google users wealthier, more Net savvy
U.S. residents who prefer Google Inc.’s search engine tend to be richer and have more Internet experience than those who primarily use competing search services from Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc., a new study has found.
The longer people have been using the Internet, the [...]

From Swarm Sketch

“Low fat”
You can watch it being created here, or contribute to the current project, “Cricket India”. Past work of note includes “Faces of Meth”, “Hurricanes”, and “Unclaimed Baggage”. You can view the full gallery here.
From CNET News.com: SwarmSketch taps Web’s ‘collective consciousness’
About three months ago, Peter Edmunds, a 22-year-old communications student at the [...]