Paul Lindner

It was a blistering July day in Las Vegas, with temps hitting 109.  Inside the SIGGRAPH 91 convention hall Yello's Rubberbandman looped on the speakers. On each chair: a red/green paddle.

I was a student volunteer, stamping the finest hands in Computer Graphics.  Those hands (and my own) each controlled those paddles.  Then 5000 people looked up and saw a Pong Game appear on the screen.

And then..  the machine started playing us.

In response to visual stimuli we changed the color of our paddle.  The ball moved left, then right.  The crowd shouting "red red red", "green!" and cheering as the game played on.

The rules of the game and the feedback loops directed our actions.  It was a complex adaptive system with emergent behavior.

And luckily there is some footage of this moment.  Watch this excerpt from "Machines of Loving Grace" that talks about this moment in history:

Loren Carpenter Experiment at SIGGRAPH '91 from Zachary Murray on Vimeo.

Loren Carpenter cofounded Pixar.  Check out the TurboGopher appearance at the 5:00 minute mark.

Today the simple pong game is now the multilayered technological environment we interact with on a daily basis. Instead of red/green paddles with 1 bit of data we carry phones that generate a wealth more.  These devices also provide the aural/visual and haptic stimuli.    With that our collective actions power all kinds of "games" today:

• Aggregated location data and movement speed generates traffic data in maps.
• Aggregated search queries and click data deliver better search results.
• Aggregated likes, views and interactions with content power trending data and even news and politics.

As technologists we need to remember that by controlling the game, we are indirectly controlling the players.  The choices we allow (and forbid) define the behavior.  The game "plays" the player.  And often the only way to be free is to not play at all.

Except that is if maybe, just maybe, the people start playing a different game than the one we designed.  In the giddy demonstration it was assumed that people wanted to win at Pong.  But we didn't play long enough for abuse or scheming.  It would have only taken a few people to cross over to sabotage the other side, or for trolls to have changed the outcome.

Finally this level of power and control demands great responsibility.  The only thing worse than control used for malicious purposes is control wielded without thought, without thinking of the consequences.  So the next time you're designing a product think about the whole system and all the inputs and ask "who's really in control?".

h/t to the General Intellect Unit podcast and their Machines of Loving Grace episode for reminding me of this unsung moment in history.

This.. this is good stuff.

One guest, after spending time at Dynamicland, held up his smartphone and shouted, “This thing is a prison!”

https://dynamicland.org/

#googplus

Nice roundup of alternative networks. In RFC form.

_This content is best viewed with lynx_

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7962

#googplus

This is good. Read and/or watch it.

http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/programming-forgetting-new-hacker-ethic/

Build systems that forget less. Use that as a metric...

Of course the cybernetician in me wants to say:
- Forgetting is really Variety Attenuation[1]
- The Good Regulator theorem applies [2]. To effectively regulate a system your model needs to be as complex as the system itself.

[[Oh and http://opentranscripts.org is such a great project. It's something that Google could do at scale, especially for educational materials, lectures etc. It also... *increases variety* by making video content more accessible]]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(cybernetics)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_regulator

#googplus

Still early days -- only 2300 artists on 296 labels so far; but growing. It fits somewhere between Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Spotify.

https://resonate.is/in-the-details/status/

Bandcamp is good if you know what you want and they do pay out really, really well.

If you want a streaming service more like Spotify you might also check out Resonate Cooperative https://resonate.is/ which has a stream-to-own model.

Discovering new music is low cost, repeated listens double until the ninth, upon which you own the track outright. You can then download or stream that track for free.

Still ramping up but I'm excited about their prospects.

Removing 120k directories on CNS for a xoogler should be easy, right? Well, it is if you're using GNU parallel

  parallel --bar  -n 1 fileutil --gfs_user=distiller-yt-pii rm -f  -R < /tmp/top-dirs.txt

  ....
  35% 5974:10984=4225s /cns/pc-d/home/mlei/rockers_squared_nm/Models/Experiment-model0_no_crosses/Version-00119720-Created-20140613-21s5936

#gdprlife #googplus

Everything old is new again....

"real life sharing"

https://vero.co

... though 1st million members are free is a new one..

#googplus

oh no, not this again....

https://sites.google.com/a/google.com/moma-news/home/201202/whathappenedwithcpac?pli=1

#googplus

5000 memberships? I thought this was Google?

com.google.apps.framework.request.StatusException: <eye3 title='FAILED_PRECONDITION'/> generic::FAILED_PRECONDITION: User 91363953886 has 5309 total memberships, can not mutate to reach 5310 as that is over the limit of 5000 ;AppErrorCode=9;StartTimeMs=1519173416402;tcp;Deadline(sec)=9.664;ResFormat=UNCOMPRESSED;Originator=corp-loas-proxy;Tag=cidc3;ServerTimeSec=0.365905408;LogBytes=256;Non-FailFast;EndUserCredsRequested;EffSecLevel=none;ReqFormat=UNCOMPRESSED;ReqID=feead50e0dd47f81;GlobalID=d58444c9b3c68ad4;Server=10.2.37.199:4113

#googplus

I may or may not have overused the Pareto distribution.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/scant-evidence-of-power-laws-found-in-real-world-networks-20180215/

Also: Quanta is good.

#googplus

googlegroups.com == dogfood history

I counted 44 dogfood google groups (!) including these classics:

butterandcream-prod (wha?)
friendsofallen
openbonfire
snickersmocha

Enjoy it while you can, GDPR will probably force the cleanup of all these...

#googplus

I wouldn't be here today without the excellent Carnegie funded library in Alexandria, MN. And yes, I realize that today you have access to all this knowledge. What you do not have is an outpost in each community, supported by people within the community.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library

#googplus

This is a must-read deck. Very happy to see these concepts being taken seriously.

I also find Pomodoro very useful to help focus.

One thing they missed was ADHD and meds used to treat it.

go/jomo-research

#googplus

#googplus

Googlers, don't be smug, doesn't look like Google Express supports Food Stamps either..

[And at least Amazon offers discounted Prime membership to people with EBT cards.]

That said if you don't have the learned experience of being poor you might want to check out today's talk "Growing Up Poor In America" - Lisa 'Tiny' Garcia at 11am PT

Livestream at http://go/tiny-kim

[original image sourced from https://imgur.com/MUuZ9sr]

#googplus

So one more Nexus 6p / Android post.

A teammate offered me a 6p test device as a loaner. Has the asset tag and everything. *Yay!*

Turns out it was factory reset with a test account on it. *Uhoh!*

But no worries there's an internal unlock tool. (http://go/androidunlock) *Yay*

Ugh it's broken for some odd reason:

https://buganizer.corp.google.com/issues/68021469

Techstop basically gives up at this point and say try out http://go/skylab -- basically saying that the device is a paperweight.

If we can't manage a shared pool of devices I fear what hell our enterprise customers go through. Also imagine if a fired employee Factory Resets their phone before they leave. Instant brick...

Anyway, enough ranting for today. I need to save my energy to deal with my wife's repeated question: "let's just go buy iPhones -- Are you some kind of masochist or what?"...

#googplus

Google Store, please take my money :(

- FWIW this is the chrome bug where time goes backwards
- And to add insult to injury I now have 4 pending charges for the failed orders.... At least having my card declined let me know that this was the case
- Filed http://b/72589737

#googplus

Wow, so this is what the Google Store offers for a clean/working Nexus 6p trade-in...

#googplus

*And you may ask yourself, well*
*How did I get here?*

_The Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project (SIDLP) - is to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and "universal" library, proving uniform access to the large number of emerging networked information sources and collections. These include both on-line versions of pre-existing works and new works and media of all kinds that will be available on the globally interlinked computer networks of the future. The Integrated Digital Library is broadly defined to include everything from personal information collections, to the collections that one finds today in conventional libraries, to the large data collections shared by scientists. The technology developed in this project will provide the "glue" that will make this worldwide collection usable as a unified entity, in a scalable and economically viable fashion._

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9411306

#googplus

#googplus

Do you want a better internet?  One that balances the needs of creators and consumers?  A more democratic internet?  I do.  That's why I'm investing in a music coop: Resonate.

Stream to Own

I've been a member-owner of Resonate for a while, and listen every day.  It provides an eclectic mix similar to a high quality college radio station.  At first glance Resonate is a streaming service like Soundcloud or Spotify.  But dig deeper and the you'll find major differences:

• You only pay for what you listen to.
• Each listen debits your balance a small amount.
• On the 9th listen you own the track. 

This tiered pricing model incentivizes discovery.  Owning actual tracks helps fans develop deeper ties to the music they love.

And I own more than just tracks.  My member share means that I own a portion of Resonate, I can vote on how the business is operated and at the end of the year I can share in the profits.

Over the past year Resonate has added more content, more features, and most importably a sustainable organization where fans, musicians, employees and labels can work together towards common goals.   This is the kind of “cooperative internet” that I always imagined would emerge back in the pre-web era.

“Purpose above Profits”

"Purpose above Profits" was the slogan at REI as I shopped for the holidays.  It’s a reminder that the REI is a Member Cooperative.  With my $20 lifetime membership I get dividends based on my purchases while supporting outdoor and environmental causes.  In 2016 REI gave back 70% of profits.

This is but one example of how Coops can offer sustainable services for the communities they serve.  Growing up I had electric power from an Coop.  When I lived in Switzerland there’s a huge retail chain literally named “Coop”.  I currently use and support my Credit Union.

Overall Coop businesses are more sustainable, and are oriented to the long term interests of their member-owners.

But the growth of the Internet and the Web bypassed the cooperative model.  This despite the fact that open source and much of the shared internet infrastructure are structured like coops.  It wasn't until 2014 that the concept of Platform Cooperative was coined.   The rise of pseudo-"sharing" platforms like Uber and AirBnB and the rise of decentralized technologies like blockchains were two key reasons that many now embrace the concept.

Early Stage Capital

But a problem emerges, how do you bootstrap a Cooperative where there are significant barriers to entry?  That’s where Supporter Shares come in.  Anyone can invest in these shares.  Each year the co-op sets aside 10% of profits and issues dividends to Supporter Share owners.

But remember that Supporter Shares don't get you extra voting power.  A cooperative is still one-person, one-vote.  The upside is that there are no leveraged buyouts, no dual share structures or non-voting shares.

The Future Internet

The Internet I want is a democratic one where creators, consumers, supporters and employees can work together towards common, sustainable goals.  By using and investing in Resonate I hope to advance those goals.  Liz Pelly captured the sentiment in "Protest Platforms" that "Resonate is particularly interesting for the way it advocates for broad decentralization of data, power, and money in music".

The Resonate Project Map details where the project is going and the plan to achieve it.  I’ll admit that the content catalog is small, (but growing!) and the technology is very beta (but improving!).  I still use and enjoy it every day.

I hope that you'll consider joining the coop as a member owner and see for yourself.  If you want to accelerate this type of work consider purchasing Supporter Shares.

And finally, I hope that you'll consider supporting a new generation of online platforms that include the same kind of values that Resonate promotes.  All while listening to and supporting the artists we love.