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Friday, August 23, 2002 |
PLATO People
This book is the story of the people that were a part of that
online community -- the first real online "virtual community",
pre-Web, pre-AOL, pre-USENET, pre-BBS, pre-everything.
Were you a PLATO person? If yes, please help me make this
book the most accurate and detailed account of the PLATO
story as can be done.
8:19:56 PM 
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"Big
Brother 3" draws crowds to Internet feed, by Michael Schneider,
Reuters. Through Monday, RealNetworks had attracted 53,742 new
subscribers through the official Big Brother site -- up 60% from this
point last year, and better than the 50,000 total that subscribed during
"Big Brother 2 ."
2:09:50 PM
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The Time Travel Fund: Your Ticket
to the Future The concept is that one day, it may be
possible for people living far in the future to retrieve you from your
current frame of reference (their past - your present) and bring you into
the future (their present - your future.) More info on this page!
Q: Why would they want to?
A: That is the purpose of the fund. The simple answer
is, we pay them to bring you into the future.
[ . . . ]
Q: How much will this cost me?
Take a guess at the answer to that last question, 'mkay? Really. Guess
before you go look at the site.
Or highlight the text below . . .
Q: How much will this cost me?
A: Our fee is only $10, of which a percentage is placed
into the fund, to grow and earn interest, and the rest is used to pay for
overhead in running the website, covering legal fees, paying for your
certificate, and maintaining the database of members.
Q: Only ten dollars? How is that going to get me a ride into the
future?
A: Compound interest. As long as the interest earned out
paces inflation and taxes, the money will eventually build to where the
costs of retrieving, rejuvenating and supporting you are fully covered.
For example, if you make a one-time only deposit of just a single dollar,
at only 5% interest, in five hundred years that single dollar will grow to
$39,323,261,827.22 (That's 39 BILLION with a "B"
dollars!)
[thanks, Dennis!]
1:09:41 PM
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John Marden's Weblog Manifestito, from two years back.
It's Your Civic Duty to Run a Weblog!
1:08:34 PM
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Spam crusaders slog it
out in court, by Paul Festa, CNET News.com. "There is
continued frustration among anti-spam litigants, said Bruce Miller,
one of the first recipients of a spam settlement. Miller cited significant
differences of opinion among judges at the King County District Court in
Washington state over jurisdiction and over factual errors in the court's
informational Web site, and warned potential spam litigants: Where the
judges are being real nitpicky about enforcing rules and laws, the
information from the court itself can lead people to think things that are
not true and that will not be upheld in court.
10:09:12 AM
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Coming up next:
Ambushed on
"Donahue"!: More dangerous than Grand
Theft Auto 3 -- a defender of
video games is given the trash
talk-show treatment. Here's
what he really wanted to say. By Henry Jenkins, in Salon.
9:37:07 AM
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Interesting reflections from Andrew: Under False Pretenses. A thought just struck me - I've been participating in one kind of online community or another for around 12 years. I don't think I've ever actually been myself before - I've always hid behind an alias or a character. With this blog, I'm finally expressing myself honestly and under my own name. This may not sound like a big deal, but when you've been pretending you're someone else in a good portion of your total social interaction for about half your life, being yourself is something significant.
This isn't to say I think that my alternate lives online have been unhealthy. Much to the contrary, actually. . . . .
[ . . . ]
I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that my involvement in this RPG taught me social skills. . . . .
[ . . . ]
Now, here in this blog, I'm actually me. My name is on the title of the place - I can't avoid the fact that this is Andrew Bayer's blog, not Lebeau's blog. It's actually a great feeling - sure, there's a little more thought going into what I'm saying now than if you were to meet me in real life, but the gist of it, the basic content, is the same. This is new for me. I like it. [Andrew Bayer Is Dreaming of China]
9:34:28 AM
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Guess what? BT doesn't have a patent on hyperlinking. At least not according to one U.S. District Court. Decision here (PDF).
9:26:27 AM
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Remember that impressive record of wiretap requests before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court? How FOIA requests some ten years ago showed that the intelligence apparatus was never denied authorization for a wiretap? And then the Department of Justice argued that showed how very, very, very careful they are and that this just proved how much they could be trusted? Remember? Now, this news:
Secret Court Says F.B.I. Aides Misled Judges in 75 Cases, by Philip Shenon, NYT.
9:23:07 AM
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