An art installation called Spamtrap by Bill Shackelford:

“I created this electronic installation artwork, called Spamtrap. It prints, shreds and blacklists spam email.

“It interacts with spammers by monitoring several email addresses I created specifically to lure in spam.

“Because I know that all email sent to these email addresses are spam, I have set the installation to print and then shred each email as it arrives. Simultaneously, the installation is feeding spam blacklists on the Web with information gathered from all the received spam. This in turn helps to feed spam filtering systems across the Web that are working to reduce the amount of spam we all receive.

“The installation uses a Pentium II computer connected to a wireless network, personal printer, personal shredder, aluminum rails, Spamtrap email addresses, automatic printing software, email client software, antivirus software, and a SpamCop user account. The paper is recycled after the spam email has been shredded.”

“Spamtrap” – watch the video

A bold new collaborative effort to catalog all know species on the planet is underway. Their abstract states:

Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity.

Here is a video overview:

(See: http://www.eol.org/ Encyclopedia of Life )

IBM’s developerWorks site provides a useful collection of tools and tutorials for the software development community. While most of the content is centered around IBM products, a considerable effort is made to address Open Source systems and services.

A recent series about business process includes an article titled ‘Architecture in Practice: Top ten tips for writing great IT project proposals‘. The abstract reads as follows:

Just as there is a software development methodology, there is an approach you can take toward IT project proposal development to maximize your chances of success. In the latest installment in the Architecture in practice column, IBM architect Tilak Mitra takes the viewpoint of a proposal leader and highlights the major steps you should follow to ensure the development of a high-quality proposal.

(Created by: http://www.xkcd.com/c256.html)

Social networking and online environments are communities unto themselves. Neighborhoods and topologies are beginning to form.

While this illustration is a cartoon, it would be interesting to become aware of my neighbors and map the context of our interactions. Where am I on the map? Where are my collaborators? Where are potential collaborators? Where and what are the gulfs between our work and experiences? Can these gulfs be bridged?

Let me work on this.

(See also: http://www.xkcd.com/c256.html A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. )

Described as ‘pure silliness’, funny that it doesn’t work in lynx.

Check it out at: http://www.asciimaps.com/