Dan Von Kohorn

I spend most of my time working and with my family, and I happily keep very busy.

I have profiles at LinkedIn and Facebook, and a blog which is in its 10th year (probably making it one of the oldest on the web). Unfortunately I can't say it is improving with age!

It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice. -- Anne Tyler (1941 - )

Pursue your passions, venture where you have never ventured before, pace yourself, serve others and have lots of fun. -- Shirley M. Tilghman

In the 21st Century, scientists and engineers will continue to inform us regarding what we can do with our ever-expanding knowledge base, but it is our shared responsibility to decide what we should do. And deciding what we should do is the greatest responsibility we all bear as we move forward together. -- Harold T. Shapiro

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. -- Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality. -- Bertrand Russell, 1947 (1872 - 1970)

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. -- Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), Speech at Harvard University, September 6, 1943

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. -- Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. -- Alan Kay

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. -- John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)

The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all. -- Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964)

First weigh the considerations, then take the risks. -- Helmuth von Moltke (1800 - 1891)

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash. -- George S. Patton (1885 - 1945)

If you don't risk anything you risk even more. -- Erica Jong

There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity. -- General Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964)

In giving advice, seek to help, not please, your friend. -- Solon (638 BC - 559 BC)

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so. -- Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

The art of living easily as to money is to pitch your scale of living one degree below your means. -- Sir Henry Taylor

A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money. -- Senator Everett Dirksen (1896 - 1969)

Lack of money is the root of all evil. -- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

The safest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket. -- Kin Hubbard (1868 - 1930)

Be you in what line of life you may, it will be amongst your misfortunes if you have not time properly to attend to pecuniary [monetary] matters. Want of attention to these matters has impeded the progress of science and of genius itself. -- William Cobbett (1763 - 1835)

Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it. -- Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)

Ski Trip 2003, 2006

Hi,

Thanks for visiting. I hope you'll drop me a note and let me know you stopped by.

Characteristics:

I like to build, solve complicated problems, be creative, learn, ski, practice nun chaku, play guitar, teach, and get distracted. I get excited about software, science, philosophy, humanity, economics, hardware, music, and finance. I act with the assumption that I will live forever--not because it is true, but because of the implications it has for how I live. I believe that innovation will enable immortal sentience in the next 50 to 150 years.

Play:

Blurring the line between work and play

Here I am at home, streaming music from my website into Winamp (props to Nullsoft) with a visualization plugin. I am running on a Dell, and have hooked up the TV as a secondary concurrent monitor using an s-video cable and commercial software. The image is being captured on a CCD camera plugged into the USB port on the same machine. (This is how the open window on the larger monitor is displaying the picture as it was being taken... and repeats into pixilation) Then I used the picture in picture feature on the TV to duplicate the secondary monitor output on the top right. Convergence is fun. It seems pretty clear that we will be computing much more comfortably in the future. With comfort comes different demands for interfaces, content, and functionality.

Interests:

Society and development technology transfer computer mediated education open source international monetary policies convergence comparative advantage and trade advantages and disadvantages of globalization cultural diversity programming languages human languages tangible/visual programming tools Economics international pricing parity efficiencies from liquidity imperfect information auction theory inflationary expectations human capital portfolio theory value attribution decision making under uncertainty financial market regulation simulation and forecasting theories

Interfaces between humans and machines between machines automated construction of hypertext and graphical user interfaces contextual awareness Machine learning conceptual inheritance and construction automated creation of classes and methods knowledge representation implication forecasting neural networks genetic algorithms machine perception mutating code agency formation and competition defining fitness agent population management Computing architecture clusters thin-client distributed processing horses for courses

Favorites:

Movies: The Matrix Fight Club Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Goodfellas Wing Chun Titan AE Good Will Hunting Buena Vista Social Club Pirates of Silicon Valley American Beauty Enter the Dragon Akira Ninja Scroll Buffalo '66 Seven Samurai Casino

Words: Perceive Patience Friend Samurai Sense Scaleable Produce Time Infinity Existential Create Efficient Architecture Honor Synthesize Psychology Love Concise

Music: Santana - his old stuff Pepe Romero Jimi Tribe Called Quest Biggie Tupac Floyd Paul Simon Afro Cuban All Stars Sinatra Beatles Tchaikovsky Erykah Badu Hooverphonic Grateful Dead Bret Mosley