I might be the only one who wasn't sure of the meaning of this word but perhaps not.
Daemon: A program or process that sits idly in the background until it is invoked to perform its task.
I see this come up often when e-mail address aren't valid but I never bothered looking up until it appeared int he Lifestreams article. Ironically, it is a varient of demon and daimon which made me chuckle.
Posted by khaack at February 25, 2003 01:10 PMyes, those unix guys did have a sense of humor!
Posted by: dcplumer on February 25, 2003 01:48 PMDaemons are worth talking about because it's this concept that most Computer Scientists are working from when thinking about agents. Other disciplines have their ideas of what an agent should be like, it might be nice to integrate their world views to get some new perspective. Other words that might pull us away from the normative thinking in this area might be: assistant, collaborator, friend and a whole host of culturally influenced ideas (dijinni, genie, butler, Smithers, etc.).
Posted by: donturn on February 25, 2003 02:29 PM