Jay McGavren's Journal

My new theme song...

Jack Johnson - Symbol in My Driveway

Got you a brand new weapon, let’s see How destructive we can be Got a brand new set of stencils I been connecting all the dots Got my plans in a Ziploc bag, let’s see How unproductive we can be

There’s more, and it all fits me perfectly. Eric, if you do another MoMa OST, this is my pick.

Musings...

It should be possible to “rewind” a software program or operating system’s settings and content to a prior state, much like a PVR.

When doing so, suppose the user leaves the program in the “rewound” state without “fast-forwarding” back to the “present”. The rewound state then becomes the new present, and changes proceed down a different timeline.

Should the set of changes in old timeline be discarded? Perhaps not - the user would lose changes made in the alternate “future”. Could the old timeline perhaps be saved? And how would one retrieve changes from it without disrupting the integrity of the current timeline? Would it be necessary to save the system’s entire state (potentially comprising gigabytes of data) with each change, or could one merely save each change as it occurs?

The answers to these questions might lie in two places: the way users use single-timeline paradigms such as a word processor’s undo and redo features (Microsoft Word), and multiple-timeline paradigms like revision control systems (CVS).

Edit:Hmmm, no, the system’s state could just be saved at the point the timelines diverge. Then individual changes could be “played back” to retrieve any state along that timeline. Assuming an infinitely fast computer, that is.

I just realized I'm working for the wrong company...

I think what clued me in was that I finished up writing in my LiveJournal about divergent timelines and reproducing a system state based only on delta information, and went back to writing a program that copies hotel information from one database and pastes it into another.

I really like “fire and forget” services like Netflix… I queue up a bunch of movies on a Website, forget about them, and receive them in the mail days, months, or years later. (Who cares when? I get them when I’m ready to watch them.) Tivo has a similar allure.

So what if there were a similar service for eBay? You enter an item you want, a maximum price you’re willing to pay (which could be a fraction of retail), and forget about it. The service watches for auctions of the item you want, and automatically bids on them for you if they’re still below the price you set. You could get outbid on dozens or even hundreds of auctions, but sooner or later, you’ll win. Surprise! You get the item in the mail the next week.

It’s like Christmas year-round. And speaking of Christmas, your family and friends could also access the same wish list, and buy you stuff from it for your birthday, etc. at full retail price. Surprise again; you got your item a lot sooner than you expected (and for free)!

Froogle Shopping Lists, by the way, seem to be a step in the right direction…

This is a test post from the FireFox “search” plugin I just wrote. It sucks having to type an entry in such a tiny box (and there’s no mood or music options), but it might be good for quick posts.

Edit: Whoops; it’s not working so good. It fills in the form, but I have to submit it manually. Oh, well. I should just get a paid account so I can post by e-mail…