Critical Exponent

The New York Times on the history of user innovation (a.k.a hacking):

The most successful incubators of user innovation, researchers say, combine fairly large numbers of users and a technology that has a modular or open design. Those design characteristics create a common workbench, or technology platform, for user innovators to tinker with and build on, whether Web software or an “accidental platform” like the Model T, noted Marco Iansiti, a professor at the Harvard Business School.

The idea of creating modular platforms that allow users to synthesize more functionality is certainly familiar from Unix design principles. It is interesting to reflect how the idea existed before the silicon age (and arguably, could have been prevalent before the proliferation of ready-made products that characterizes post-WWII America).

We’ll put up posts on the wedding as soon as we can write coherently about it and we sort through all the pictures.

In the meantime, read critics’ reviews: Nerd’s Eye View, Wolftone, and Vain.

Let’s just say it was a gorgeous, moving event.

(On a lighter note, For Better or for Worse captures some of the angst of actually planning the event. So glad that’s behind us now!)

Wedding season is upon us. Knox’s parents drove up a few weeks ago. Our first guests arrived on Sunday for their pre-wedding Northwest vacation. Knox’s sister and her family are in town.

The logistics are sufficiently under control. We had a spa day on Sunday and I have a much-needed haircut tomorrow before more out-of-towners arrive. Then it’ll be hiking, fireworks, and vows.

Oh, right, vows. I thought we were forgetting something….