Thursday, March 11, 2010

the internet is a brain. or vice versa?

The more I interact with the twitter world, the more I realize that the connections that shape the internet are undeniably similar to the neurons that form the brain. There are about 400 million internet users today (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm). Thats a lot of people connected via wires and electricity. But wait - how many neurons are there in a SINGLE brain? Well, there are about 100 BILLION per brain. This number absolutely trumps the number of internet users in the world, but there are key similarities to understand here.

The internet is made of computers connected together, exchanging information via electrical signals. The same is true for our brain. A neuron communicates with another neuron by sending electrical impulses down its axons (like a wire & plug) to another neuron's dentrites (like a socket). Unlike the computer, which sends information in code that contains diverse types of information, the neuron sends information by changing its frequency in transmission. For instance: if I were to hit my hand on the desk with little force, neurons would fire signals at a constant intensity - with relatively low frequency. Comparatively, if I were to hit my hand with a sledgehammer, then my neurons would fire signals with the same intensity - but with a very high frequency. Anyways, thats besides the point. The bottom line is that the brain sends electrical signals throughout its network of neurons much like the internet sends information through its network of computers.

How did our brains evolve? How did the internet evolve? What will the internet look like in the future? Our brain size is limited by our skull size - is there an upper limit for the internet? We have IQ scores for our minds - is there an IQ for the internet? Is Klout score analogous to IQ? Probably not, but I figure Id mention it anyway. Just for fun.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Riddle for you

If it takes a hen & a half a day & a half to lay an egg & a half how long does it take a monkey with a wooden leg to kick all of the seeds out of a dill pickle?

Better yet, can you tell me where this riddle came from?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Medal Count

In case you were wondering what the final medal count was for this year's winter olympic games in Vancouver, here you go:





On a more serious note, google reveals stats on searches from around the world for information about the olympic games.

According to Google's blog:
The most searched-for individual gold medal-winning athletes were:
1. Shaun White (U.S. men's halfpipe)
2. 김연아 (Kim Yu-Na; Korea ladies' figure skating)
3. Lindsey Vonn (U.S. ladies' downhill Alpine skiing)
4. Sven Kramer (Netherlands men's 5000m speed skating)
5. Evan Lysacek (U.S. men's figure skating)

Thanks for reading. I am trying to be more proactive about getting my word out there. Thanks to @John_C_Davies for motivating me to engage more.

Cheers.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

top 50 lists

This project has turned out to be very interesting to me. At klout, I have been assigned to handle much of the customer service, tag analysis, and yes, their twitter account. As such, I have been hustling to make these lists of top influencers so that we can publish them on the website and official (klout) twitter page. Here is what I have learned through the process:

- there are a LOT of people who use twitter
- there are a LOT of people with klout scores of 50+
- the world is SMALLER than I once thought
- news travels faster than tsunamis (in reference to the Hawaii tsunami warning)
- people have interesting things to say

Now, this whole twitterverse is very new to me. I am no stranger to facebook. Heck, I've even dabbled in myspace and yes, friendster. I admit it. But twitter is communication on a whole new level. Its hard to explain unless you dive in and engage like I have in the past couple weeks.

I believe klout has the most accurate and versatile metrics that you can find. Fortunately, I have been able to use this powerful tool to find powerful people. In the process of filtering through the pages and listing users with klout scores of 50+, I am generating the most condensed lists of influential people in the world.

The process of making/revising these lists seems never-ending. There are always more people out there to be discovered. As far as the utility of the lists....well, I'm still trying to figure that out. I think ill start by contacting at least one person a day and see what happens from there.

Im sure a door will open up somewhere.