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April 6, 2005
Please be aware that the submission date for Proposal Abstracts for NineSigma RFP 50113-1, ” Technologies to Enable Rapid Cooling of a Steam Iron ” is this Friday, April 8, 2005. The RFP and associated documents can be accessed online at http://www.ninesigma.com/mx/50113-1 …
Sincerely,
Kevin C. Stark, Ph.D.
How the hell did I get on this particular mailing list? Talk about things I don’t care about…
April 5, 2005
3 Quarks Daily wonders if the Internet could influence the selection of the next pope by setting up a wiki where the webosphere could educate itselff about the 117 people who cast their votes in the Sistine Chapel, and then pepper them with opinions.
Sounds like a waste of time as an attempt to affect the decision — the process is cloistered on purpose — but a worthwhile exercise in citizen journalism.
Besides, do you think maybe as a Jew I kinda lack the standing to be listened to on this particular topic? Now, when it’s time to select a new Pope of the Internet, send me a butterfly ballot.
(Thanks to Marko Ahtisaari for the link. Joi and Mark Federman also have interesting posts on the Pope and MSM.) [Technorati tag: pope]
March 31, 2005
Scott Adams at Arkansas Tech has remixed Cluetrain for education, through “creative search and replace.” [Technorati tag: cluetrain]
March 30, 2005
Jeff interviews Bob Corn-Revere, a first amendment lawyer, about the new threats to free speech. Bob says that the Democrats have been even more pro-regulation than the Republicans. The fines have gone way up: 4x the fines this year than in the total of the past ten years. We now have “obscenity light,” a vast expansion of scope and vagueness.
Jeff recounts his investigation of the 129 complaints that caused the FCC to issue it’s largest fine ever, $1.2M. Jeff found that they were written by 23 people and all but 3 were the same.
Bob says that the number of complaints is going up dramatically, but that they are being generated by particular web sites. The number of shows that receive complaints is declining. But Congress seems not to be interested in protecting free speech. So, Jeff asks, if this doesn’t get settled until it gets to the Supreme Court.
Bob: “It’s hard to predict.”
Jeff: Broadcasting now is multi-way. Bob replies that that’s what’s really different now. [Sorry for the crappy summary. It was more nuanced and wide-ranging than this.]
[Can we complain to the FCC that there isn’t enough profanity on TV? After all, Janet Jackson’s nipple slip was the most frequently replayed moment of the Super Bowl among people with TiVos] [Technorati tags: f2c jarvis CornRevere]
March 29, 2005
Billmon has an astounding juxtaposition. [Technorati tag: schiavo]
March 27, 2005
I think I’m missing something obvious, but why can’t I find a p2p backup system that lets me and a designated buddy swap storage space? I’ll give my pal, say, 5GB of storage on my computer if she’ll give me 5GB on hers. My computer is pretty much always on, and so is my buddy’s. All we need is some basic sw for letting us designate the directories we want kept up to date and for making the p2p connection. Maybe a little encryption and compression. Neither of us guarantees 24/7/365 access, multiply redundant raid arrays, or whatever, but it would help me sleep better knowing that when my house melts, the drafts of that unfinished awful novel will survive.
Does this software — preferably free and open source — exist and I’ve just missed it? If it doesn’t, have I missed why this is a bad idea?
March 26, 2005
Over at Tom Peters‘ site I posted a bit about Netflix’s policy on who gets which DVD’s first, citing an anonymous research paper on the topic. Who do I hear from afterwards but my old friend Mike Muegel. Turns out, he’s the anonymous writer. He says:
It was a fun little project, as it was so obvious what was going on, especially after I set up the 2nd account. And I enjoy writing custom Web robots and charting. Oh how I love my graphs…
By the way, Mike notes that he’s looking for his next job. If you want to contact him, he’s now added his name and email address (mike\AT/muegel.org) to his report, as well as a postscript…
The GlobalVoices blog is getting really interesting. It’s a Berkman-sponsored place for talking about ways in which we can get better at hearing blogs from other parts of the world.
For example, recent articles include: An Iranian presidential candidate starts blogging, two Malaysian bloggers talk about the role of blogs where the MSM are tightly controlled, and sources of information from newly-tumultuous Krygyzstan.
March 25, 2005
Steve Johnson has a brilliant post on why he doesn’t blog his books as he writes them:
The problem for an author is that books are not written the way they are read. They usually take years to write, from original proposal to final proofs; they are rarely composed in sequence; and by the time you submit a final manuscript, you’ve invariably read every page dozens of times, mostly out context.
So for me at least, the trick of writing a book is somehow shedding all the layered, time-shifted contortions of writing, and somehow recreating what it would feel like to sit down as a newcomer to the book and start reading..
…And private, linear, slow is exactly the opposite of the experience of blogging. .
Read the whole thing if only because it is itself an example of Steve’s blend of logic, insight and voice.
I wrote Small Pieces Loosely Joined entirely online, posting updated drafts every day. That was a mistake. What’s the point of reading, much less commenting on, drafts the author is going to throw out tomorow? So, next time, I think I’ll aggressively blog ideas as they occur and post drafts of chapters as I finish them. I think. [Technorati tags: SteveJohnson blogs]
From the Signal to Noise conference announcement:
The conference offers an exciting mix of performances, demonstrations and discussions examining how digital technologies are enabling new forms of creativity by a broader group of people. Cultural, business, legal and ethical implications of new genres and new forms of authorship will all be covered along with an artist’s interests and rights in downstream uses of original creations. Scheduled conference participants include New York Times bestselling author Matthew Pearl, copyright scholar Terry Fisher, fanfic author Naomi Novik, David Dixon of Beatallica, innovative musician Dan the Automator, Paul Marino of machinima.org, and Wendy Seltzer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Signal or Noise 2K5 is open to the public but pre-registration is needed: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sn/register. For more information about the conference’s location, schedule and participants, please visit http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sn/schedule. To view a map of the area: http://map.harvard.edu/level2.cfm?mapname=camb_allston&tile=F6.
I sat in on a planning meeting and it looks like it’s going to be more eclectic and less sit-and-listen-y than most conferences.
From the Berkman’s Rebecca MacKinnon:
[Technorati tags: berkman malaysia]Malaysian bloggers Jeff Ooi and Mack Zulkieli will help me kick off our first LIVE Globalvoices online IRC interview and chat. Join us Friday (tomorrow) at *15:00GMT* (10:00am Friday EST, 23:00 Friday China time, etc.)
*IRC location:* #globalvoices on Freenode. (irc://irc.freenode.net/#globalvoices).
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