Chilenian Communists & Cybernetitians invented another Internet in 1970

"Project Cybersyn was a Chilean attempt at real-time computer-controlled planned economy in the years 1970–1973 (during the government of president Salvador Allende). It was essentially a network of telex machines that linked factories with a single computer center in Santiago, which controlled them using principles of cybernetics. The principal architect of the system was British operations research scientist Stafford Beer." (wikipedia)

Check out the whole Wikipedia entry, and some chilenian activists prepared a pretty good website and an installation at the ZKM a great museum in Karlsruhe.

Open Source Mobile Phone Initiatives

I wrote a post about a couple of interesting initiatives working on open source mobile phone products & services. Read it @ the entrepreneurship.de blog (yes i will start to syndicate these posts soon ;-)

Larry Lessig for Congress

I just learned that Lawrence Lessig is considering to run for a seat in US congress and i call upon everybody to support his candidacy and help build the grassroots movement he proposes is necessary to CHANGE the way Washington works.

On the website http://lessig08.org/ there is a really good presentation about his stance & plans.

Entrepreneurship @ Stanford

I just published a post @ entrepreneurship.de listing all the interesting entrepreneurship activities i found here at stanford.

You find it @ labor.entrepreneurship.de/blog/entrepreneurship-stanford/

Igloo's are more difficult

so as promised, i went up to Tahoe this weekend to build and sleep in an igloo. Having done my homework and after the success with the snow cave i felt rather confident my buddy Sean and I would be able to build a luxurious igloo in his front yard.
Well - igloo's and esp. the statics of the dome proved to be much more difficult to build. After 4,5 hours of sweat and cold we had to acknowledge our defeat - - - for this time!

@ Ipernity I put up some pix; and to prove that we didn't turn too melancholic there is also some from the mountain we climbed the next day. Apparently the locals have made it a tradition to hang up their underwear to the summit flag pole - so did I ;-)

Future of the internet & social phsychology podcasts

Just came across two very good podcasts:

Ramesh Johari, assistant professor at Stanfords Engineering Department gives a highly recommened course entitled "The Future of the Internet". Considering the content of the course I dont like the title to much - he explains very well how the internet is working today and wants the students to think about questions regarding the future development of the internet. Naming issues apart, he gives a very interesting and insightful account about the internet's fundamental architecture and the inter-play of technology, policy and business in shaping this increasingly critical infrastructure. Especially lecture 3 on the economics of the internet (on the level of carriers and e.g. the niche that akamai was able to create) i felt was really good.

You can download all 6 lectures @ iTunes U and here are the lecture notes

------------------

At Berkeley's webcast series i discovered the Social Psychology class, which proves to be an excellent introduction to the field, allowing the learner to develop a good overview of the core concepts and the main academic protagonists in the very dynamic science.

Again all lectures are available from Berkeley or @ iTunes. The lecture notes and syllabus etc. are available here (this course will run until mid-june)

the future of charging your mobile divices

patrick just pointed me to www.wildcharge.com. they have a really powerful value proposition: charge your mobile devices - mp3-player, phone, laptop, etc. - without fuddling and plugging no wires. They are still in the "start-up" phase and dont have their product ready to be 100% satisfying but it is potentially a technology that we will all want to use - just like wireless internet.

In the year 2014 the New York times has gone offline

i have a really bussy day, but i have to share this. It's really really powerful fiction-future-forcast. (Allow the backdrop to develop in the first few minutes)

"Set in 2014 it charts the history of the Internet, the evolving mediascape and the way news and newspapers were affected by the growth in online news.

It coined the word "Googlezon" from a future merger of Google and Amazon to form the Google grid, and speaks of news wars with the Times becoming a print only paper for the elite culminating in EPIC Evolving Personalised Information Construct

As a flash animation, this film is extraordinary, not just for it's use of technology but for it's fantastic perception looking forward."

Epic 2015 (new updated version)
Click here to launch the new movie
Click here to launch the movie full screen

Finally, my first snow cave

Introduction
My friends and I first talked about sleeping in a snow cave about five years ago when we where ski-touring in Norway, and the idea of building and sleeping in such a traditional shelter has been with me ever since. On several occasions we discussed whether or not to do it and NOW with these 2meters of perfect snow in the Sierra Nevada I was finally mentally prepared to do it :-)

I first consulted some websites. Especially this, and this (good pix) and this one (scroll to bottom) were quite helpful.

Then i went to a close by outdoor shop and bought a cheap 32$ bivvy sack and a 6$ three square meter silver-foil to reflect my body heat (not sure i really needed the latter).

As my partner from last weekend had to work i decided to go by myself. Naturally I was a bit ambiguous about the whole project. Hell would i do when the cave collapsed? As always traffic was worse than expected and I got to the trailhead around 12.00. Luckily the 3 miles to the Peter Grubb hut (at Mount Castle near Lake Tahoe) next to which i planned to dig my cave were not too difficult and i got there by around 3.30 pm.

The Building Process
The websites had recommended to look for a small not to steep hill and build the cave on the lee side where the wind had transported the drifting snow. I had also read to take advantage of a tree if possible. So i chose my spot at the tree you see at the right.

I dug a pretty deep whole in order to have the necessary depth to setup the cold-trap (the entry tunnel needs to be lower than your "bed"). On the picture you see the entry as well as the tunnel photographed from the sleeping position.

















Things got a bit complicated once the horizontal entry tunnel was complete and i had to dig up vertically. I couldn't think of another way than to lay on my back, shove myself into the tunnel and work overhead -- with the result that a got my face etc. all wet from the falling snow. Once the tunnel was big enough for me to crawl into it things got gradually more comfortable. However the fact that i was by myself made the procedure more difficult as i had to gouge the "body" of the cave while constantly squeezing out to remove the snow from the entry hole.

The Night
The idea to build the cave next to the hut proved pretty clever, because all my cloth were completely wet after muddling through the wet snow for so long. I could have them dry in the hut, prepare a soup and some noodles and read a bit. At around 23.00 i prepared my gear: loaded the sleeping bag in the bivvy and filled the sleeping pad halfway with air. Then i went in my cave, spread the silver foil, draged the crash pad inside and filled it up. Last was the sleeping bag. Shit and the cave was full full full. But it was much too late for second thoughts. I got got rid of the outer shells of my ski boots (which was quite acrobatic given the tightness of the place) and climbed into my "bed" - not without reassuring myself that the shovel, which would allow me to dig myself out in case of an emergency, was right behind my head.

I fell to sleep without a problem, but kept waking up every two hours or so, because i couldn't really turn around, plus there were these ice water drops that interrupted my dreams. But overall it was pretty comfy and warm. In fact when i woke up at around 6.45 it was light already - a really awesome ice-blue light - and i decided to take another nap which lasted until almost nine o'clock when i rose out of my cave, completely relaxed and rested.

Reflections
The whole building procedure took me about 2 and 1/2 hours and i have to say there is plenty of room for improvement :-) Even though it did remember to smoothen the caves ceiling (this is supposed to make melted snow run down the side walls), i apparently wasn't thorough enough because i had small but constant amount of drops drip on me all night. Also my cave was really small. It would have been much more comfortable if i could have sat up. A bigger would have prevented me slowly sliding towards the tunnel also. Well next time. I am optimistic that from now on snow caves (and igloos) will - slowly but surely - become my specialty :-)