Monday, August 19, 2002

Living in the Blog-osphere: Welcome to the world of a half million (and counting) Weblogs, where anyone can instantly publish his passions and favorite Weblinks. And the fun’s just begun. By Steven Levy, in Newsweek. 8:24:38 PM    comment []

It's Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site! 8:22:10 PM    comment []

Neat personal blog: deliberately random thoughts. Yellow-against-black text that is surprisingly easy to read, a fine writing style, copiously and lovingly illustrated. 1:13:33 PM    comment []

Annals of Taste: The Red and the White: Is it possible that wine connoisseurs can't tell them apart? By Calvin Trillin, in The New Yorker. [ I forget where I found a pointer to this. Robot wisdom? Follow me here? Probably one of those. ] 1:13:32 PM    comment []

Dan Gillmor says there are Reasons for Optimism. Realism returns Technology everywhere Customers awaken Defending liberty 11:13:11 AM    comment []

Internet Audience Still Growing After All, by Pamela Parker, internetnews.com. After a June in which sequential growth of the Internet audience slowed to a standstill, comScore Media Metrix says the number of Americans using the medium is rising again. The company's July traffic figures showed the audience grew 29 percent compared to the same period in 2001, and 2.2 percent compared to the previous month. (See also How many online?") 11:13:10 AM    comment []

Odd . . . all my ''comments'' links show the number of comments == 0, without regard to whether there are comments linked there or not. Anyone know what's up with that? 10:13:05 AM    comment []

Making [Privacy] Work: Developing a policy to protect customers is only the beginning. By Rick Whiting, InformationWeek. Privacy policies on Web sites and in mailings are just words. The hard part is backing them up with the employee training and information technology to make them work. Regulatory actions such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which requires financial-services companies to notify customers of their information-sharing practices, have produced a mountain of mail for consumers and much moaning from banks about the cost, but they've done little to help customers understand or businesses enforce their privacy policies. Many companies are still focused on the regulator's agenda. The ones that are more advanced are working on the customer's, says Leigh Williams, chief privacy officer at Fidelity Investments. 10:13:04 AM    comment []

Langa Letter: Microsoft's Controversial New EULA Terms: Fred Langa looks at the new language in Microsoft's End User License Agreement, and shows how you can protect yourself against unwanted software updates. By Fred Langa, InformationWeek. Langa says, Look At The Actual Text and commends Rational Watchfulness, Not Paranoia. 10:13:03 AM    comment []

>From silklist, thanks to winterspeak's I don't care about spam: Cory Doctorow responds to Bruce Sterling's A Contrarian View of Open Source (I think winterspeak is off the mark. Sterling throws off insights like a dog shaking off the rainwater, and I have gotten a ton from reading and listening to him. More on that another time.) Cory raves about Bob Frankston's Connectivity: What it is and why it is so important, and he makes it sound pretty smart and important. I'll have to read it, I guess. But my first thought, based on Cory's gloss, is that it inverts one of the founding principles of the Net. But perhaps not . . . I'll investigate further and report back. (Hmmm. Lots of promissory notes being offered here.) 9:12:48 AM    comment []

freedom through commitment VeryModern Astrology has some captivating thoughts on commitment phobia versus the payoff from not expending energy looking for a relationship. 6:13:18 AM    comment []

Freedom To Tinker Freedom To Tinker is Ed Felten's new blog, on Digital Rights Management stuff. He comments over the weekend on the ongoing legal battle over the rights to Winnie-the-Pooh. It's full of telling details about the state of "intellectual property" law today, and about the mindset of the people involved. My favorite example is a statement by Disney's lawyer: "The legacy of Winnie-the-Pooh and the treasure that it is for generations of kids is something that Disney has taken the time and money to accomplish." And to think that I had always given the credit to A.A. Milne. LAWYERS, TIGGERS AND BEARS, OH MY! 6:06:24 AM    comment []

How many online? NUA Surveys answers 580.78 million. 5:58:08 AM    comment []

WARNING TO WINDOWS MEDIA FILE COLLECTORS: YOUR MUSIC WILL DIE WITH YOUR COMPUTER Digital Rights Management: Reformatting the hard drive has made your PC, in effect, a different computer. Since you did not back up and restore your licenses, there is no obvious way to play the protected files. From a Guardian story, blogged in On Lisa Rein's Radar (which includes some helpful advice about how to respond to the situation). [rre] Added a bit later: According to WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER DRM: THE PLOT THICKENS , a later entry on that blog, the helpful advice is not in fact helpful. You cannot uncheck the digital rights management box under the terms of the Supplemental EULA. 5:56:08 AM    comment []

Phil Agre also points at the great discussion in Bruce Schneier's CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter, Palladium and the TCPA. I sent this around on my mailing list last week, but I see I didn't blog it anywhere, so here's a blink to reasoned opinion and analysis concerning Microsoft's ''Paladium'' ''initiative'' and ''Trusted Computing.'' 5:51:01 AM    comment []

On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing into a Building The National Law Enforcement and Security Institute will be holding a conference called "Homeland Security: America's Leadership Challenge" in Chicago on 6 Sept 2002. One of the featured speakers is John Fulton - Intelligence Networking & Analysis. The program says: On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team at the CIA were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day. Information is the most powerful tool available in the homeland security effort. At the core of every initiative currently underway to protect our country and its citizens is the challenge of getting the right information to the right people at the right time. How can so much information from around the world be captured and processed in meaningful and timely ways? Mr. Fulton shares his insights into the intelligence community, and shares a vision of how today's information systems will be developed into even better counter-terrorism tools of tomorrow. [rre / thememoryhole] 5:40:06 AM    comment []