As so many predicted, my summer fling with a goatee and moustache has, with the changing of the leaves, ended. We have, rather fashionably, annulled the relationship.

It was just too high maintenance, requiring near-constant tugging and twisting, especially the delicious little bits on the border with the shaved areas. You know who you are. Um, were. I couldn’t maintain my beard and write my blog. It really came down to that.

And while I was in having my goatee and moustache removed, I had them further weaken my chin and, what the heck, add some more moles.

BTW, I expect to get over the pathetic habit of stroking my chin where my goatee used to be by the time the spring rains come.

5 Comments »

BradSucks, the webbiest musician on the Web, has a whole bunch o’ news, including that he’s gearing up to perform live. Also, he’s remixed his most excellent CD, I Don’t Know What I’m Doing. And you can get the source of that album. All for free, although you can also pay him, which, if you like his music (as I do), I hope you will. [Tags: BradSucks music]

2 Comments »

0: eight
1: eighteen
2: eighty
3: eighty-eight
4: eighty-five
5: eighty-four
6: eighty-nine
7: eighty-one
8: eighty-seven
9: eighty-six
10: eighty-three
11: eighty-two
12: eleven
13: fifteen
14: fifty
15: fifty-eight
16: fifty-five
17: fifty-four
18: fifty-nine
19: fifty-one
20: fifty-seven
21: fifty-six
22: fifty-three
23: fifty-two
24: five
25: forty
26: forty-eight
27: forty-five
28: forty-four
29: forty-nine
30: forty-one
31: forty-seven
32: forty-six
33: forty-three
34: forty-two
35: four
36: fourteen
37: nine
38: nineteen
39: ninety
40: ninety-eight
41: ninety-five
42: ninety-four
43: ninety-nine
44: ninety-one
45: ninety-seven
46: ninety-six
47: ninety-three
48: ninety-two
49: one
50: one hundred
51: seven
52: seventeen
53: seventy
54: seventy-eight
55: seventy-five
56: seventy-four
57: seventy-nine
58: seventy-one
59: seventy-seven
60: seventy-six
61: seventy-three
62: seventy-two
63: six
64: sixteen
65: sixty
66: sixty-eight
67: sixty-five
68: sixty-four
69: sixty-nine
70: sixty-one
71: sixty-seven
72: sixty-six
73: sixty-three
74: sixty-two
75: ten
76: thirteen
77: thirty
78: thirty-eight
79: thirty-five
80: thirty-four
81: thirty-nine
82: thirty-one
83: thirty-seven
84: thirty-six
85: thirty-three
86: thirty-two
87: three
88: twelve
89: twenty
90: twenty-eight
91: twenty-five
92: twenty-four
93: twenty-nine
94: twenty-one
95: twenty-seven
96: twenty-six
97: twenty-three
98: twenty-two
99: two
100: zero

No, I don’t know why I did this either. (And if there are errors, it’s because I’m a bad programmer, not a bad alphabetizer. Although I’m also a bad alphabetizer, now that you mention it.) [Tags: EverythingIsMiscellaneous]

7 Comments »

EthanZ reports on the not-so-amusing piracy that steals 850 tons of rice intended for tsunami victims. Talk like a pirate? Sure. Steal food like a pirate? Not so funny. [Tags: TalkLikeAPirate EthanZuckerman tsunami]

5 Comments »

Jeneane has an excellent article explaining why CEOs should blogs. She’s talked with a whole lot of CEOs and their moral equivalents… [Tags: blogs JeneaneSessum]

1 Comment »

Joi blogs a BBC report on a study that shows that a substantial number of US teens think that freedom of speech goes too far.

I’m less alarmed than the BBC article apparently thinks I should be. All my life I’ve been reading polls that show that Americans think the Bill of Rights goes too far. I assume that this is in part a trick of the way the questions are phrased and in part scarily true. So, the new study doesn’t surprise me. The question is: What’s the trend? [Tags: politics JoiIto bbc]

2 Comments »

Pedro De Miguel Asensio from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid is talking about the European Union’s rules on consumer protection and how they differ from the US’s.

When it comes to jurisdiction, the general rule seems to be that if a consumer sues a vendor, the suit occurs in the customer’s country of domicile if the vendor’s site is directed at that country. Otherwise, it happens in the vendor’s country. E.g., if it’s a Danish site, written in Danish with only Danish phone numbers, and someone in Spain buys a product from it and then sues, the suit will be heard in Denmark, not Spain. Consumer groups push for suing in the consumer’s country. Businesses don’t like that — imagine opening up a site to sell your music and you get hauled into court in West Elsewhere by a consumer who thinks you’ve defamed her religion.

Pedro says that currently, although the scope of protection differs, the EU and the US are in substantial agreement.

Terry Fisher says that the first generation of Internet lawyers thought sovereign states would stay out of the Internet. It’s just too messy. The new generation, he says, which includes Tim Wu, thinks sovereign states are definitely in and we should be encouraging divergencies (e.g., the French can’t buy Nazi paraphernalia, but Yankees can). Terry says that Pedro diverges from this, recommending coming together on standards.

Bill McGeveran points out that once you’ve decided the forum (e.g., California), you can also choose which law applies: A California court can apply Danish law. And then there’s the question of enforceability.

John Palfrey asks if the Internet is different enough that there should be special procedures and forms of arbitration for it. Pedro says it’s a point worth considering.

When googling “Rome Convention” during Pedro’s talk, I came across a page that uses the phrase “aural fixation.” It doesn’t mean anything like I first thought. (By the way, the Rome Convention to which Pedro referred is not that one. It’s this one.)

[Tags: berkman law internet ecommerce eu]

1 Comment »

The following way of explaining what I mean by the power of the miscellaneous emerged from a phone conversation with Lou Rosenfeld:

It’s like the blind men and the elephant, except you don’t have to choose your favorite blind man any more.

Does that work for you? [Tags: EverythingIsMiscellaneous]

3 Comments »

I’ve just published a new issue of my newsletter, JOHO. This is the first one since I began blogging that doesn’t have some previously blogged material in it. Plus, I put in some very short excerpts from the book I’m working on.

5 Comments »

Taketh:

Verso Technologies has announced a “carrier-grade applications filter” designed to block Skype but capable of blocking P2P messaging, streaming media and IM, according to an article by Doug Mohney in TheInquirer.net. ISPs don’t like Skype because it increases traffic and gets in the way of them “monetizing” VOIP. I.e., it’s free and people like it, hence it must die.

IP Media Monitor (free reg required) writes that Google is planning to build its own optical network:

Internet giant Google is reviewing bids received from multiple technology vendors for the development of a national DWDM fiber network, an optical switching fabric that would cover the entire continental U.S., and ultimately the globe. The construction of an advanced optical fiber network would give Google unprecedented flexibility to push massive amounts of voice, video and data content very close to end users.

The move by Google comes on the heels of the company’s widely reported purchase of dark fiber and hiring of an optical fiber expert to head up initiatives by the company to construct fiber-based networks. Some reports have suggested Google’s aim in buying dark fiber is to cost-effectively manage by the company’s rising traffic loads by constructing their own long-haul networks. But according to vendors who responded to Google’s request for proposals for the optical DWDM network, Google’s architectural demands suggest the company is looking to become a major competitive communications network provider.

As a general principle, it’s important to keep the companies that provide the transport of bits from also providing services using those bits because the temptation is just too great to hamstring the services of others. (See the Skype tidbit above.) But, if Google were to keep the two divisions separate, and if they were to pledge to keep their network open to anyone with two bits, so to speak, this could give us a way to route around the greed- and fear-based architectures coming our way from the incumbents.

Plus, do you know just how cool fiber is? Omigod.

Alternatively, maybe Google is just building itself an amazing intranet.

[Tags: google skype]

2 Comments »