Cherry-pick from Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox for October 1 on [http://www.useit.com/alertbox/intro-text.html Blah-Blah Text: Keep, Cut, or Kill?].
Summary:
:Introductory text on Web pages is usually too long, so users skip it. But short intros can increase usability by explaining the remaining content’s purpose.
Enjoy being inspired by Nielsen’s [http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/ writing for the web].
[http://www.groovyactors.org/ 
]
Refreshed my link with Gerald “[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensegrity tensegrity]” de Jong, triggered by a blog entry from TED titled [http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TEDBlog/~3/152990430/theo_jansen.php Creatures on the beach] from the Dutch sculptor Theo Jansen which instantly reminded me of Gerald’s [http://sourceforge.net/projects/fluidiom/ Fluidiom] and [http://www.darwinathome.org Darwin at Home] projects.
Gerald’s email signature also mentioned [http://www.groovyactors.org/ Groovy Actors]:
:In a nutshell it’s a natural next step, building further on object-oriented programming (OOP), where objects become active talkative peers.
:Imagine running thousands of concurrent programs on one computer where each program instance represents something or someone in the real world. Some things are passive and only react to events but lots of real world things also take initiative.
:That’s why parts of this kind of system can better be represented in software by “autonomous agents” or “actors” which frequently interact with each other.
And built using the Groovy language.
Just wondering why ”’Groovy Actors are limited to a single computer”’ rather than ”’autonomous peers distributed across thousands of computers”’. Love to have concepts from [[Erlang]] and [http://javaspace.org JavaSpaces] built in.
Love to see the Groovy Actors’ [http://www.groovyactors.org/examples/02.html Hello Storage] example implement the story of [http://wiki.aardrock.com/Wizard_Rabbit_Treasurer The Wizard, The Rabbit, and The Treasurer].
A new programming language? Well, at least one I never heard of until today. It’s called [http://www.erlang.org/ Erlang] and one of the interesting aspects are that it eases ”’concurrent programming”’ and ”’distributed processes”’.
Erlang is a programming language designed at the Ericsson Computer Science Laboratory. Open-source Erlang is being released to help encourage the spread of Erlang outside Ericsson.
The language syntax reminds me a bit of Prolog. And I wonder what the power would be if something like Erlang is combined with the elegant concepts of [http://javaspaces.org/ JavaSpaces].
I’m still longing for an elegant platform neutral programming language that has mechanisms for ”'”effortless” peer-to-peer”’ built in. In fact, our new social and wisdom fabric cries out for a new “programming” language (and perhaps OS) that catalyses p2p development on all layers, from information to human to social to wisdom and that fuels the noosphere.
One of the first things I’d do with it is create an evolutionary prototype of [http://wiki.aardrock.com/Armillaria Armillaria] with [http://wiki.aardrock.com/Wizard_Rabbit_Treasurer The Wizard, The Rabbit and The Treasurer] as an example. [http://www.google.com/search?q=stigmergence Stigmergence].
Het project [http://www.opentaal.org/ OpenTaal] maakt vrije Nederlandstalige taalhulpbestanden voor gebruik in opensourceprojecten. In eerste instantie werken we aan spellingcontrole en woordafbreking. Ook denken we aan synoniemenlijsten en er is een begin gemaakt met grammaticacontrole.
Tim O’Reilly’s [http://blogs.oreillynet.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1920 Call for a Blogger’s Code of Conduct] heeft een paar rake punten:
#Neem verantwoordelijkheid, niet alleen voor je eigen woorden, maar ook voor de commentaren die je toestaat op je blog.
#Label je tolerantie voor offensieve en beledigend commentaar.
#Overweeg anoniem commentaar te elimineren.
#Negeer de trollen.
#Zet het gesprek offline voort en spreek openhartig of vind een intermediair die dat kan en wil.
#Zeg het degeen van wie je zijn of haar gedrag afkeurt.
#Zeg online niets wat je in persoon ook niet zou zeggen.
The Business Case for Open Source Software: “An anonymous reader writes ‘An InfoWorld blog entry makes a business case for open source software, and attempts to explain the business benefits of OSS to management and business owners. The primary benefits the piece uses to argue in favor of OSS include ”’no licensing fees”’, and ”’no license keys”’. The article also argues that OSS results in ”’freedom from ‘ownership”” by software vendors. ‘Never again will you fear the BSA (Business Software Alliance) knocking on your door wanting to perform a software audit. The BSA even takes out advertisements on Google search pages for and up to $200,000 reward a disgruntled ex-employee can receive for reporting your company to the BSA! That’s quite a powerful motivator…”
(Via Slashdot.)