Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

vatsa just pointed me to There.com, a company that's attempting to create an interactive 3D world on the Internet where users can play games, shop, explore their world, talk to others or organize group events. The company info page refers to this virtual world as a "metaverse".

Anyone who has read Neal Stephenson's 1991 book Snow Crash will recall that he used (introduced?) the term "Metaverse" to describe exactly the same thing, except his model lacked central control. And anyone who also paid attention to the theoretical issues the Metaverse rakes up will know that it is not possible to implement the Metaverse without tight central control. Remember what happened when id software released the Quake 1 source code? But central control aside, there are usability issues. Why, for instance, would I bother with manipulating an avatar's position in 3D space and maintain a conversation using the same controls (keyboard and mouse) when I could just use an instant messenger and get down to the talking? The only feasible idea from There.com's list is multi-player gaming, and that's stepping into the FPS and MMRPG scene, which is already rather crowded.

There.com claims to have received $33 million in funding since inception in 1998. VC Jim White of Sutter Hill Ventures says "The There team shares a powerful vision of fundamentally changing the way people interact with each other online." Myself? I won't be surprised if they go bankrupt in a couple of years.

I feel light in the head.

Amazon.com on Cory Doctorow's new book Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom:

Availability: This title will be released on December 31, 1969. You may order it now and we will ship it to you when it arrives

Based on what I've read of his writing so far, I would have bought it right away, but I just bought Bruce Sterling's Tomorrow Now and Po Bronson's What should I do with my life?, and since I don't want to fall into the acquiring-faster-than-I-can-read trap again, Doctorow's work shall not grace my shelf yet. It remains on my wishlist though, for anyone feeling a little too generous.

I have a good mind to install Debian right now. I'm not using Red Hat again.

I give up. The apt-rpm sources scene is totally lame. The next time I do a Linux installation for my own use, it's going to be Debian Sid.

I should do it on this box and escape further pain, but since I'm lazy I'll put it off until the rpm database gets irrecoverably corrupted (has always happened within six months of an RH install for me).

Things like these are exactly what I need to ruin my plans: Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists™

Happy birthday, rashmiprasad. And belated wishes, mujibmk and gurunandan.

January is going to be a busy month of sending out birthday greetings.

Does anyone know of a more comprehensive apt-rpm source than freshrpms? Their collection is woefully inadequate and rpmfind.net is hopelessly cluttered and out of date.

I have a good mind to go back to Debian Sid if getting packages on RH8 continues to be such a pain.

I discovered Radio Paradise a few hours ago and its turning out to be the best radio channel I've ever heard. If you have the bandwidth, give it a hear.

William Miller: Do you have to be depressed to write a sad song? Do you have to be in love to write a love song? Is a song better when it really happened to you? Like "Love Thing," where did you write that and who was it about?
Russell Hammond: When did you get so professional?

— Cameron Crowe, Almost Famous (2000)

Some poetry would have been appropriate here, but I was never good with it, and I realise too late now that I should pay more careful attention to the lyric.

It therefore remains unexpressed.

On new year's eve at Times Square, the crowd arrived early:



And waited, and waited, and waited:



And five hours later, the fireworks exploded. Then everybody went home:

In New York freedom looks like
Too many choices
In New York I found a friend
To drown out the other voices

— U2, New York



I lost most of my shots to bad focus and poor lighting. Next time, I'm going to go in the middle of the summer so I will have the advantage of sunlight on my side. And maybe I'll get to see the Statue of Liberty too — the trip seems incomplete without it.