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Friday, February 28, 2003
Knowledge *Sharing* is Power Xerox finds that the successful members are an organization are those who willingly share power, not those who hoard it. [Link] Knowledge sharing could be used as the basis for hiring decisions, with recruiters analysing the language used by job candidates as the latest tool in the war for hot talent.Discuss Knowledge *Sharing* is Power Thursday, February 27, 2003 Distribution of Influence Ross Mayfield's blogged an excellent essay on distribution of influence, neofunctionalism, and emergent pluralism. [Link] Emergent Pluralism arises when groups form at a low cost. MoveOn is an early example of an influencing group that leverages low cost communication and collaboration. As the cost for forming issue groups falls, expect similar groups and coalitions to form around otherwise less fundable issues. Issue groups will influence decision makers by voicing opinion (in blogspace, mass media, direct appeals, activism) and as constituencies (aggregated to lobby, mobilized to vote or petition). Political leaders and lobbying organizations that develop interfaces to engage these issue groups and are responsive stand to benefit by being better informed than through pure polling and gaining constituents.Discuss Distribution of Influence Justin at Stanford Justin Hall is a Stanford Fellow! Congratulations, Justin! [Link] Wednesday, February 26, 2003 David the Scribe The Austin Weblogger Meetups are getting better and better, or should I say stranger and stranger? Whatever ... David Nunez is taking notes and names, and he's blogged about the latest. Pretty hilarious... Chip abuses his Sim family, named Clones, by helping them burn down their backyard; I paraphrase, "They are so stupid, that I figured if I gave them a BBQ, then it was only a matter of time before disaster." They are evil. They drown their neighbors in a 2x2 swimming pool. Then they are haunted by the ghosts of their dead friends and never get to sleep. Chip giggled and giggled as he talked about his Sims.Discuss David the Scribe Usable Software Specifications From Boxes and Arrows: Brian Krause offers guidelines for creating usable specs and requirements. His approach is sane: keep it relatively simple, use the right level of detail, don't be so technical that non-tech readers are alienated. "By abandoning the traditional idea of a spec in favor of a usable spec, you can deliver something that's fun to show off, easy to understand, and confidence-inspiring." [Link] Tuesday, February 25, 2003 Computer Made from DNA and Enzymes Israeli scientists have created a computer from DNA and enzymes. The computer is fueled by a DNA molecule. [Link] Think of DNA as software, and enzymes as hardware. Put them together in a test tube. The way in which these molecules undergo chemical reactions with each other allows simple operations to be performed as a byproduct of the reactions. The scientists tell the devices what to do by controlling the composition of the DNA software molecules. It's a completely different approach to pushing electrons around a dry circuit in a conventional computer.Discuss Computer Made from DNA and Enzymes Monday, February 24, 2003 FOUR count them FOUR Hours in AUSTIN! It's Austin Blog Day and the relevant bloggable is "what to do with four free hours in Austin." I wouldn't know what four free hours is like, personally, but I suppose I can imagine what I would do with 'em. Among others I would hang out at Zilker Botanical Garden, a favorite stomping round for all my years in Austin. Zilker Park is Austin's answer to New York's Central Park, and my favorite part of Zilker is the Botanical Garden, and my favorite part of that scene is the Isamu Taniguchi Oriental Garden, where I've been known to sit for hours feeling the wind and watching the wisteria grow. This is not what you would expect from an aging cyberpunk but there you are. I could give four free hours to the garden quite readily, and (in season) to the Rose Garden, or the new prehistoric garden. On the other hand... give me four hours at night and I could spend it somewhere like The Continental Club or the even funkier Saxon Pub. (Then again, I might just spend four hours at home, snooooozing.) Sunday, February 23, 2003 BBC Rant: Google and Blogs Clueless rant about Google and blogs by "technology consultant" Bill Thompson, published by BBC News. [Link] Why clueless? BlogsHe says that "Blogging is not journalism," in fact "is as far from journalism as it is possible to get, with unsubstantiated rumour, prejudice and gossip masquerading as informed opinion." He goes on to say that journalism requires editors, fact-checkers, etc.This suggests that writers and journalists (many of whom blog) are incomplete as such, without fact-checkers and editors on board. A trained and sometimes-practicing journalist myself, I appreciate the value of good editors and fact checkers, but I wouldn't say that blogging is not journalism just because, when I'm blogging, I'm working without those particular nets. It's more accurate to say that blogs are, or can be, journalism – but it's raw journalism, and should be evaluated with that in mind. We look at context and reputation to decide the real value of the unedited, unchecked text. And what about "official" journalism? Is it a better source of truth than the universe of weblogs? I think not: we've all seen media-generated inaccuracies and distortions over the years, and stories where a journalist's or publisher's bias is evident. And as we all know, a few media conglomerates are monopolizing the "legitimate" media channels. Those of us who have exposed ourselves to the multiplicity of perspectives offered by bloggers (even before they had that name) feel that we have a better sense of what's true, because we view reality from many possible angles. And Thompson does acknowledge "the value that comes from having the unmediated opinions and experiences of millions of people available online." "It refuses to say why it wants this information or to admit whether it makes it available to the US Government for tracking purposes." If Thompson's a technology consultant, you'd think he would know to check Google's Privacy Policy, which says "we will release specific personal information about you if required to do so in order to comply with any valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order." Besides which, though Google may collect information about your use of the system, it's stored anonymously, in aggregate, for the most part. Most Google users never provide names or demographic information. It's common to use aggregate data in a number of ways, and to market or transfer aggregate data. Because the data is anonymous, not tied to a specific identity, this isn't much of an issue. He also mentions Google's search methodology, which is a trade secret, though Google does disclose some information about one part of the algorithm, called page ranking. Thompson says "If Google decides it does not like you then you can be dropped from the index." Google excluded sites, but not because they "don't like" the site. The reasons are more complex, as you would expect. Google spokesman Nate Tyler told CNet "We carefully consider any credible complaint on a case-by-case basis and take necessary action when needed. This is not pre-emptive--we only react to requests that come to us...to avoid legal liability, we remove sites from Google search results pages that may conflict with local laws." If you want to read a thoughtful analysis of the issue of Google's power, read CNet's "The Google Gods" by Stefanie Olsen. Olsen discusses real issues, like support advantages for Google's paid advertisers. Friday, February 21, 2003 Rolling with the punches. Got this from Jeff today: Have you been fooling around with your blog design again? It no longer fits on a 800x600 screenI admit it. I screw around with my design all the time, as well as a few others that I handle pro bono. I might've actually become a designer if I had been able to draw a straight line... I mean, I'm drawn to it, and this is where I can play. This was the second time in two weeks, though, that I'd discovered a bug with my web page design. In this case it was an 800 x 600 thing, and I didn't test at that res. Bad form: always test outside your own tiny envelope - we know that as technolojazzmeisters, but we get lazy with our own stuff. The problem a couple of weeks ago was with the fonts - in my blog items, the display was something like .5 point type in IE, though Mozilla didn't present a problem. I had used ems to specify font size. Somehow it wasn't working. The problem today was a too-wide table at 800 x 600, and I tried everything, but it wouldn't repair. Then I noticed the "cosmic snot" image I had linked, and realized it was pushing the measure of the center column. A reminder that the web wasn't built for design precision. The point I want to make here, though, is that you feel free to email me if the site looks crappy, and I'll work on it. And someday I might get good at this! But I'm not holding my breath. Give Peace a Chance! Photos from war protests around the world. [Link] Thursday, February 20, 2003 Viridian Note 00362: The Mood at Davos Bruce Sterling quotes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett on the gloomy mood at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. You think you're depressed: world economic leaders see a clueless and uncooperative U.S. administration feeding world-stability to a shredder, while economies topple and war becomes a way of life. Meanwhile U.S. leaders say privately that the war in Iraq is just one more step toward "global cleansing." [Link] If the U.S. unilaterally goes to war, and it is anything short of a quick surgical strike (lasting less than 30 days), the economists were all predicting extreme economic gloom: falling dollar value, rising spot market oil prices, the Fed pushing interest rates down towards zero with resulting increase in national debt, severe trouble in all countries whose currency is guaranteed against the dollar (which is just about everybody except the EU), a near cessation of all development and humanitarian programs for poor countries. Very few economists or ministers of finance predicted the world getting out of that economic funk for minimally five-10 years, once the downward spiral ensues.Discuss The Mood at Davos Wednesday, February 19, 2003 "I Didn't Realize What All Was in It" Members of Congress are evidently beginning to learn the real meaning of the campaign finance reform legislation they passed. It appears that they didn't take time to read it, and are surprised to find that it contains strict rules &ndash and if you screw up, it's a felony.(Via Reason Online; thanks to Tom Morin for the pointer.) [Link] McCain-Feingold may be an unconstitutional monstrosity, but maybe it will lead members of Congress to reconsider their habit of voting for legislation they haven't read. In any case, it's richly satisfying to see legislators worry that they might be tossed in jail for a seemingly trivial mistake such as speaking at the wrong event or letting your name appear on an invitation. This is the kind of fear and uncertainty their convoluted laws routinely impose on ordinary Americans.Discuss "I Didn't Realize What All Was in It" Long Beach does WiFi Long Beach, California has a city-supported wi-fi network. [Link] In that former navy town 30 miles south of Los Angeles, the Economic Development Bureau has partnered with local high-tech businesses to establish a three-block Wi-Fi hotzone along Pine Avenue, the city's restaurant row. However, unlike some other city-sponsored hotzones, it's completely free.Discuss Long Beach does WiFi Word Bursts... ... or maybe idea bursts (memes) "may reveal online trends." Do tell! What's funny is that I found that on Daypop, which analyzes links to reveal online trends. I've been looking at the Daypop Top 40 as a great way to make sure I'm not missing anything, god forbid. I usually don't blog from there, though, because by the time a story's on Daypop, everybody's already heard it, no? Today's bright idea: blog from the bottom of the list. Meanwhile my information addiction was clearly exposed after a couple of months without cable television, when I announced that I couldn't take it anymore and called Time Warner, announcing an emergency need to plug an information deficit. Not quality information, mind you, but visual information, with great stereo. Maybe it's more of a media junkie thing. We'd decided that Jerry Mander was right, television is crap, we can do without it, but that's a lie. After I'd played through a few dozen crappy old videos and had my fill of the depressing local news, I decided it was time to get back to the hard stuff. CNN is playing in the next room, sort of like a fire in the heather, crackling away. Whups, I almost forgot... the link: [Link] Discuss Word Bursts (or, if you're bored, Jon L's obsession with television) Tock David Nunez blogs about his software project, Tock, a personal, email-based knowledge management system. I especially appreciate David's insight that "knowledge management" should focus, not on storing and categorizing information, but on knowledge as process. (If, like me, you're hoping to see Tock released soon, nag]H]H]H inspire David with a comment. [Link] Most people use their email inbox incorrectly. At best, they treat it as a holding bin for "Stuff they need to do." Inboxes spiral out of control and suddenly thousands of pieces of email make the user feel overwhelmed. What an inbox SHOULD be is a triage area. What is this email? Do I care about what happens to it? Is there an action tied to it? What does this relate to in my world of information? The answers to those questions guide the user towards progress so that he doesn't feel like his information is crowding his life.Discuss Tock Tuesday, February 18, 2003 Emergent Democracy Links Just want to store these somewhere. Joi Ito has posted the latest version of this Emergent Democracy paper. This version's 1.1, but I'm thinking later updates will be available at this same url. This is in part a response to Clay Shirky's Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality. Ross Mayfield responded to Shirky here, and his thinking was factored into the emergent democracy paper, as well as Peter Kaminski's from here. My own comments on the original version of the paper are here. Emergent Democracy Links Just want to store these somewhere. Joi Ito has posted the latest version of this Emergent Democracy paper. This version's 1.1, but I'm thinking later updates will be available at this same url. This is in part a response to Clay Shirky's Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality. Ross Mayfield responded to Shirky here, and his thinking was factored into the emergent democracy paper, as well as Peter Kaminski's from here. My own comments on the original version of the paper are here. Molly Ivins prunes a Shrub This interview's all too brief, but Molly clearly has a handle on the character (if I may use that word) of the Bush Administration's foreign policy. [Link] I don't think Bush knows much about the rest of the world and I think part of his reaction ... I mean, it's so obvious he's not traveled widely, he's not well read, he's not terribly interested in the rest of the world. Mexico is almost the only exception to that and, bless his heart, he hasn't had any time to pay attention to Mexico. That's not his fault.Discuss Molly Ivins prunes a Shrub Sunday, February 16, 2003 Emergent Democracy Paper Draft Joi Ito is working on a paper on emergent democracy. My own comments are here. Note: I made a discussion link relevant to this blog item, but if you want to comment on Joi's paper, it's better to comment at his site. Dan Gillmor: Google Buys Pyra: Blogging Goes Big-Time Google just announced the purchase of Pyra, the company that makes Blogger, which is the tool that I use for Weblogsky.com (as well as several other sites). This is good news for Blogger users who've been waiting for Pyra to catch up on the backlog of features it's been hoping to incorporate. [Link] The buyout is a huge boost to an enormously diverse genre of online publishing that has begun to change the equations of online news and information. Weblogs are frequently updated, with items appearing in reverse chronological order (the most recent postings appear first). Typically they include links to other pages on the Internet, and the topics range from technology to politics to just about anything you can name. Many weblogs invite feedback through discussion postings, and weblogs often point to other weblogs in an ecosystem of news, opinions and ideas.Discuss Google Buys Pyra: Blogging Goes Big-Time Saturday, February 15, 2003 Emergent Democracy Yesterday I joined several people in a happening about emergent democracy, the second of two calls organized and led by Joi Ito. What I think we're after at this point is a set of tools that support an evolution toward something closer to direct democracy. The United States was formed as a republic, but we've had a professed democratic intention, if seldom realized. Real democracy is hard to achieve, and when you achieve it, it can be indistinguishable from mob rule - so we should be careful what we wish for. However I'm hopeful that we'll find ways to enhance participation (along the road that started as contemporary media developed, with the Internet hopefully a big step in the right direction) and to create distributed, nodal political entities that invite decentralization, so that power is more evenly distributed, and political activities are aligned with the real values and intentions of ordinary citizens. This seems particularly desireable now, as we've seen American power hjacked by a minority of individual with potentially disastrous results from which it may take decades to recover. I'll have more to say about this over the next few weeks. The war is on As citizens across the U.S. protest a possible war with Iraq, it's useful to note that the war has already started. [Link] Even as President George Bush repeated at the weekend that it was not too late to avert war if Saddam complies with the inspectors, bombing by US jets over the no-fly zone, coupled with the commando operations, means that a fight is already unfolding.Discuss The war is on The Internet is not a thing... ... it's an agreement, according to David Weinberger in the Journal of the Hypertext Organization. David references End-to-End Arguments in System Design , which espouses the principle that " whenever possible, services should not be built into a network but should be allowed to arise at the network's ends. " [Link] The Internet is not a thing. We know this because we could throw out all the material stuff of the Internet, replace it with other stuff that's vastly different, and it'd still be the Internet. For example, we could theoretically replace the wires with transmitters and receivers and the hard drives with 3D optical memory, and it'd still be the Internet.Discuss The Internet is not a thing... Ignorance is Bliss? Geoffrey Sommer, of the Rand Corporation, a science advisor to the U.S. government, figured we'd be better off not knowing if an asteroid is certain to collide catastrophically with earth . The quote below says Sommer is also an adviser on terrorism - perhaps he'll advise against false alarms, as well? [Link] "When a problem arises with high uncertainty, there is an opportunity to spin the problem to avoid global panic. If you can't do anything about a warning, then there is no point in issuing a warning at all," Dr Sommer told the association yesterday.Discuss Ignorance is Bliss? Friday, February 14, 2003 Ross Mayfield: Distribution of Choice Bloggers were buzzing about Clay Shirky's piece, Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality, this week, but Ross Mayfield did more than buzz... Ross posted fruitful analysis of the Shirky's piece and followup. Clay made a prediction: Though there are more new bloggers and more new readers every day, most of the new readers are adding to the traffic of the top few blogs, while most new blogs are getting below average traffic, a gap that will grow as the weblog world does. It's not impossible to launch a good new blog and become widely read, but it's harder than it was last year, and it will be harder still next year. At some point (probably one we've already passed), weblog technology will be seen as a platform for so many forms of publishing, filtering, aggregation, and syndication that blogging will stop referring to any particularly coherent activity. The term 'blog' will fall into the middle distance, as 'home page' and 'portal' have, words that used to mean some concrete thing, but which were stretched by use past the point of meaning. This will happen when head and tail of the power law distribution become so different that we can't think of J. Random Blogger and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit as doing the same thing.Ross posts some comments and links, then goes on to post conclusions. After reviewing data of work relationships, information flows and knowledge exchanges from hundreds of consulting assignments inside Fortune 2000 organizations Valdis Krebs did not see much evidence of power laws in this data. His data is of confirmed ties [both persons agreed/recognized their mutual interactions/flows/relationships] from a worldwide pool of clients dating back to 1988. Of course he found some people were better connected than others, but the extreme hubs found in power law networks just were not evident.I personally thing Shirky's misperceiving blogs as one-to-many journalism, and missing the fact that blogs are conversations. Different paradigm. Wednesday, February 12, 2003 Afterglow? Or Cosmic Snot? Scientists captured an image of the "infant" universe or afterglow of the big bang, at least that's the theory. Using NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), they've captured the cosmic microwave background, and of course they have a pretty good idea what that means based on their best understanding... not that I disagree, but hopefully we've all learned that theories are just theories. My own personal issue du jour is that I can't see how we could hope to get our heads around creation, and if you're showing me the fire, I want to know who struck the match? Perhaps the universe is cosmic snot? Only god nose... [Link] The WMAP team found that the big bang and Inflation theories continue to ring true. The contents of the universe include 4 percent atoms (ordinary matter), 23 percent of an unknown type of dark matter, and 73 percent of a mysterious dark energy. The new measurements even shed light on the nature of the dark energy, which acts as a sort of anti-gravity.Discuss Afterglow? Or Cosmic Snot? Holland Tunnel 02/11/03 Fred Askew photos of antiwar activists blocking the Holland Tunnel in New York City yesterday. [Link] Discuss Holland Tunnel 02/11/03 Demon-Haunted Brain I like the opener: "If the brain mediates all experience, then paranormal phenomena are nothing more than neuronal events..." - as if "neuronal events" are somehow trivial next to external events? But it's inherently true that our experience of reality is a reflection the quality of which depends on our sensory "equipment." Our sense that the "mind" or "soul" is a separate entity and the body is a vessel that contains it is apparently inaccurate... mind and body are not independent, rather, mind is an aspect of body. I was making this point recently on the WELL, in a discussion of the extropian notion that we can extend our lives by replicating, uploading, and storing our "minds" as though mind was independent of body, and a "thing" to be stored rather than an ongoing process. If you have a wheel that's turning, you can stop the wheel and put it away somewhere, but where do you store the "turning"? [Link] These studies are only the latest to deliver blows against the belief that mind and spirit are separate from brain and body. In reality, all experience is mediated by the brain. Large brain areas such as the cortex coordinate inputs from smaller brain areas such as the temporal lobes, which themselves collate neural events from still smaller brain modules such as the angular gyrus. Of course, we are not aware of the workings of our own electrochemical systems. What we experience is what philosophers call qualia, or subjective states of thoughts and feelings that arise from a concatenation of neural events.Discuss Demon-Haunted Brain Tuesday, February 11, 2003 Live from the Blogosphere  If you're anywhere near L.A., don't miss Live from the Blogosphere, a panel assembled by Rhizome.LA, featuring Mark Frauenfelder et al., moderated by Xeni Jardin. (Break a leg, Mark!) [Link] Cultural Divide Plagues NASA Article in the Washington Post suggests that cultural disconnects within NASA may be responsible for the Columbia and Challenger space shuttle disasters. Specifically, NASA managers may be less realistic in their risk assessments than the organization's engineers, because of their role in marketing the space program. Physicist Richard Feynman saw this after the Challenger disaster: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled," he wrote to then-President Reagan. [Link] In the Columbia investigation, managers say they discounted the damage done by a piece of foam to the underside of Columbia's wing during liftoff because such damage had happened many times before -- and those shuttles had all come back safely.Discuss Cultural Divide Plagues NASA Monday, February 10, 2003 Columbia: The unanswered question Steven Johnson considers whether rescue of the Columbia astronauts would've been possible if NASA had detected their predicament before re-entry. [Link] Tracking online music sales The International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) (IFPI) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have developed a code called the Global Release Identifier (GRid) that will keep track of music sales online. For those of you who worry about such things, they're saying that "GRid is not designed, nor is it intended for, keeping track of songs that wind up on online file-sharing networks, a major source of music piracy." What they're trying to do is offer an alternative to file-trading sites by selling their music online. At reasonable prices, no doubt...? [Link] Embrace file-sharing, or die! John Snyder, president of Artist House Records, a board member of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), has written (with his son, Ben) a remarkably sane consideration of file sharing and the music industry. His conclusion: we have to re-think the concept of intellectual property, and abandon knee-jerk legal maneuvers to protect established interests against new technologies that won't go away. If 50 million Americans are downloading free music, it might be better for the recording industry to find its place in the 'knowledge economy' than to fight a war against its best customers. (Via Salon and Dave Farber's 'interesting people' email list.) [Link] "Intellectual property law cannot be patched, retrofitted, or expanded to contain digitized expression any more than real estate law might be revised to cover the allocation of broadcasting spectrum..."Discuss Embrace file-sharing or die! Friday, February 07, 2003 Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act (Also blogged at Greater Democracy.) According to The Center for Public Integrity, the Justice Department has drafted "a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act ... [that] will give the government broad, sweeping new powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial review and public access to information." The bill, drafted by John Ashcroft's staff, has not had official release, but the Center for Public Integrity obtained a version dated January 9, 2003. [Link to the story at The Center for Public Integrity] Dr. David Cole, Georgetown University Law professor and author of Terrorism and the Constitution, reviewed the draft legislation at the request of the Center, and said that the legislation "raises a lot of serious concerns. It's troubling that they have gotten this far along and they've been telling people there is nothing in the works." This proposed law, he added, "would radically expand law enforcement and intelligence gathering authorities, reduce or eliminate judicial oversight over surveillance, authorize secret arrests, create a DNA database based on unchecked executive 'suspicion,' create new death penalties, and even seek to take American citizenship away from persons who belong to or support disfavored political groups."Discuss Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act Jesus and Cannabis According to this article in the Guardian, the healing oils Jesus used contained a cannabis extract. [Link] "There can be little doubt about a role for cannabis in Judaic religion," Carl Ruck, professor of classical mythology at Boston University said.Discuss Jesus and Cannabis A Danse Macabre Michael Ventura's chilling analysis of the precursors of inevitable war. [Link] What's interesting is that much that Bush says of Saddam is equally true of Bush: He has weapons of mass destruction and has demonstrated his willingness to use them; he will not accept or accede to world opinion (all those treaties we've broken or canceled and all those allies we ignore); he will not accept inspections (the United States is the only major country that refuses to sign a world treaty on chemical and biological inspections -- the treaty requires inspections and the U.S. won't allow that); he is threatening weaker countries; he has usurped dictatorial powers; his word can't be trusted. Here is Bush speaking at Fort Hood on Jan. 4: "[Our enemies] reach across oceans to target innocent people. They seek weapons of mass murder on a massive scale. The terrorists will not be stopped by mercy or by conscience." (My italics.) But it is Bush who is reaching across oceans to target innocent people (the UN estimates that half a million Iraqis will be killed or injured in this war, 3 million will go hungry, 1 million will become refugees -- we are targeting Saddam, but we will kill or otherwise destroy many innocents to get to him). It is Bush who commands an arsenal designed for mass murder, and has stated his willingness to use it. And, by his own admission, he has dispensed with the inconvenient notions of mercy and conscience.Discuss Danse Macabre Online Terror Hoax Computerworld has a story about a web site supposedly operated by terrorists, www.harkatulmujahideen.org, which was actually a hoax perpretrated by a journalist named Brian McWilliams. McWilliams says he originally set up the web site "to gain some insight into how the Internet was being used for terrorist recruitment, and to report my findings," but it became "a honeypot for gullible journalists." He was evidently seeing what kinds of email the site would attract, until he got an email from journalist Dan Verton. " I wondered if Verton, a former Marine intelligence officer and a self-proclaimed security expert, would attempt to verify whether harkatulmujahideen.org was actually operated by the Harkat. Would he rely exclusively on information fed to him by e-mail without some other corroboration: telephone, for example?" He was troubled to find that Verton bit. Would those reporters simply parrot back what mi2g told them without doing any real digging of their own?Discuss Online Terror Hoax Monday, February 03, 2003 DVD Rot Some DVDs are "rotting," and the manufacturers aren't always owning up to the problem. (Thanks, Bruce!) [Link] The failures are a combination of corrosion - known as "DVD rot" - and delamination, where the layers of the disc separate.Discuss DVD Rot Janis Ian: Don't Sever a High-Tech Lifeline for Musicians Singer/songwriter Janis Ian on RIAA vs Verizon, which says "that anyone suspected of downloading so-called 'infringing' files on the Internet -- usually an MP3 of a song -- could be sued." She notes that "...record companies say this decision will mean more money for musicians, but they have it backward. The downloaded music they're shutting off actually creates sales by exposing artists to new fans." She says that her own sales increased 300% when she started putting free music online. [Link] The Internet means exposure, and these days, unless you're in the Top 40, you're not getting on the radio. The Internet is the only outlet for many artists to be heard by an audience bigger than whoever shows up at a local coffeehouse. The Internet allows people like me to gain new fans; if only 10% of those downloading my music buy my records or come to my shows, I've just gained enough fans to fill Carnegie Hall twice over.Discuss High-Tech Lifeline for Musicians TCPA / Palladium Frequently Asked Questions Ross Anderson's created a good, comprehensive "trusted computing" (TCPA>/a>)/digital rights management FAQ. (Palladium was Microsoft's name for its version of trusted computing, but that name's been changed to "next-generation secure computing base.") Trusted computing would be built into the BIOS of your computer, and would help you avoid the temptation to load pirated files and unauthorized programs by disabling or removing them. It does other stuff, too, for instance its impact on "free" software created under the GNU Public License: TCPA will undermine the General Public License (GPL), under which many free and open source software products are distributed. The GPL is designed to prevent the fruits of communal voluntary labour being hijacked by private companies for profit. Anyone can use and modify software distributed under this licence, but if you distribute a modified copy, you must make it available to the world, together with the source code so that other people can make subsequent modifications of their own. Discuss "Trusted computing" and digital rights management Sunday, February 02, 2003 "If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines" The hand that programs the voting machines rules the world? Republican Chuck Hagel used to run the company whose machines counted the votes that put him in office. Have elections have been rigged by manipulating the voting machine's instructions? The evident conflict of interest here certainly raises the question. [Link] The respected Washington, DC publication The Hill (www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx) has confirmed that former conservative radio talk-show host and now Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel was the head of, and continues to own part interest in, the company that owns the company that installed, programmed, and largely ran the voting machines that were used by most of the citizens of Nebraska. Saturday, February 01, 2003 10 Emerging Technologies That Will Change the World MIT's Technology Review surveys ten emerging technologies... via Bruce. [Link] Alert: Space Shuttle Missing  The Space Shuttle Columbia disappeared over Texas while returning to earth this morning. "Columbia was at an altitude of 200,700 feet over north-central Texas at a 9 a.m., traveling at 12,500 mph when mission control lost contact and tracking data." [Link to CNN coverage.]  |
