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On Friday night I attempted step outside of the world of digital media and information superhighways and attended the The Edwardian World’s Faire, here in San Francisco.

The Edwardian period fascinates me for the fashion and adventure our modern lives seem so miserably to lack. The outing we planned, was intended as a brief departure into this world, and to my surprise it was very nearly approaching successful. I left behind all traces of my contemporary life, barring my iPhone and six one dollar notes, all minted in the last 3 years.

My inability to part with my iPhone, for a night in the early 1900s, is excusable by my standards, but my reasons and the resulting outcome turned out to be quite contrary. There are a dozen or more reasons why I love my iPhone, but the camera was never among them. It is fine, in all practical senses, but I have never purchased a phone for it’s camera. And I’ve never considered a mobile phone camera to truly manifest any of the prerequisite qualities of an actual camera. The evenings excursion, however, proved the iPhone camera otherwise.

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When the #%*@ just won’t stick and your deadline is fast approaching, being a designer is not fun. It’s a problem every designer has faced, many times. And if you’re looking for inspiration, everyone and their uncle is ready to tell you how to find it. Even me.

But, when it comes down to it, when it’s just you and a blank, flourine-polymer, Photoshop canvas, what does any of this really mean? It’s your hump and you have to figure out how to get over it.

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Semantic Web Trending in 2008

If Web design and development were fashion, linguists would be the new black in 2008. Beyond the confines of traditional Web vehicles, the need for smart applications is staking its’ claim. Leading this push, are the fledgling efforts of several Web applications, now touting something akin to good old Sci-Fi artificial intelligence.

In a sense, we’re seeing the beginnings of a quasi-Marxist ai, finding more and more space on the web. I’m guessing we’ll see an explosion (poof) in semantic web applications in 2008, even if only from behind the private beta curtain. A fair number of semantic applications are well into development and a few have even made the break into the public domain. But are we ready?

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