Friday, December 13, 2002

Kissinger Quits 9/11 Panel. Plastic::Politics::Terrorism: That sound you hear? It's Christopher Hitchens gloating. [Plastic: Most Recent] Um, wow. They won't have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore . . . oh, right. Straight to the wire story if you want it. 10:06:37 PM    comment []

3 from BNA News: RESEARCH GROUP PREDICTS MAJOR CYBERTERROR IN 2003 IDC predicts that a major cyberterrorism event will occur in 2003. The research group suggests that the event will disrupt the economy and the Internet for several days. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-977780.html MICROSOFT REVEALS FLAWS IN OPERATING SYSTEM Microsoft has revealed critical flaws in its Windows operating system. The company admits that the flaws could allow hackers to alter data stored in computers, run unwanted programs, and reformat hard drives. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-977123.html?tag=fd_top http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4727533.htm DUTCH GROUP SENDS OUT 150 INVOICES FOR ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS Following up on a court order that allowed it to obtain information on user's IP addresses which were then matched to those who download music files, the Copenhagen-based AntiPiratGruppen has sent out 150 invoices for the downloads. The invoices range in price and were received by a hotel, several schools, and private individuals. 4:00:31 PM    comment []

Publishers Lunch e-mail newsletter, on the Barnes and Noble acquisition of Sterling Books: One type of response is that other houses are not concerned by the acquisition because it "does not compete with the waves of trade books." Hyperion head Bob Miller tells the NY Times, It's not like they bought a trade publisher. Sterling does category publishing of books that involve packaged information for specific needs. It's a smart move for Barnes & Noble, because it gives them more good content to sell within their stores, and it gives them distribution for other titles they publish. The biggest retailer in the business knows a little something about what sells with consistency, turns well, and is most profitable. Coupled with BN’s other moves in category non-fiction—from products in their proprietary publishing line, to recent initiatives like their SparkNotes line, and a rumored test prep line on the way, plus their commanding position in the remainder market and growing line of aggressively priced classics—the chain’s eagerness to bid strongly for Sterling bears long and hard contemplation by other publishers. BN is "competing" with traditional trade publishers by smartly and methodically conquering many of the least glamorous, most successful areas of commercial publishing and retailing, happily leaving the riskiest areas of "trade" publishing to the rest of the field. (Riggio told the WSJ "Sterling is strong in gardening, cooking, health, house and home, and these are the kind of categories that we do well with.") Non-competitive like a fox, you might say. (Publishers Lunch also reports that the guy behind Everyone Who's Anyone, Whether They Want To Be Or Not, blinked earlier, has sold his memoir.) 2:00:13 PM    comment []

Tom asks, What’s the plan? Does BushCorp take Iraq’s oil to pay off North Korea’s ransom note? 11:59:58 AM    comment []

Al on ''health care for all'': Believe it or not, I really don't think it matters much. One way or another we ration the care we give, both in Europe and the US. We only differ in how we ration it. 11:59:55 AM    comment []

As noted yesterday, Bush has spoken out against Lott's praise for racism. In the words of the NYT headline writer, Bush Rebukes Lott Over Remarks on Thurmond (NYT story by Adam Nagourney and Carl Hulse.) In a brilliant stroke of communication with the Republican base -- or important parts of it -- he ''rebuked'' Lott on the same day that, by Executive Order, Bush allows federal contractors to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. (NYT story, "Bush Will Allow Religious Groups to Receive U.S. Aid," by Richard W. Stevenson.) Just so it's clear where he stands, y'all. 10:59:45 AM    comment []

Nat Hentoff, in the Village Voice, We'll All Be Under Surveillance: Computers Will Say What We Are (on Bush, Rumsfeld, Poindexter, and Total Information Awareness surveillance). 9:59:40 AM    comment []

Three years ago on the weblog before 'tother blog: Friday, December 17, 1999 The Chronicle: James Madison U. Makes Information-Awareness Course Mandatory Information Security--User Education (James Madison University) The Chronicle: Western Governors U. Officials Say They're Content With Modest Pace of Enrollment Gas, Electric Firms Said Y2K-Ready Programs for Poor Not Y2K Ready Trademarks and Domain Names (Daniel Bricklin) The problem with moving trademarks without thinking to the Internet is easy to see: convergence. We converge all namespaces that logically separate in the traditional world into one namespace in the domain name world. People used to policing their little space (cars, dog food, hand tools, whatever) now are all mixed up into one space. Entities not used to fighting for space (people, non-profits, informal organizations) are mixed in, too. A Safe Haven (Bob Frankston) Just like an animal threatened with extinction because of its valuable pelt, the DNS is threatened because the identifiers can have commercial value as names. While we cannot save tigers by painting them green, we can preserve the DNS by creating a safe haven of handles that do not have commercial value. Thus, instead of Frankston.com, one may have 123-3.1231.zzz. >From CRYPTO-GRAM: The NSA has been patenting, and publishing, technology that is relevant to ECHELON. posted 11:23:27 AM Justice Probing MTV's Power Interactive TV to limit Web access [I told you so.] White House Orders Study of Online Voting - Report (12/16/1999) posted 11:17:42 AM White House orders e-vote study Fraud, privacy concerns voiced over online voting Thursday, December 16, 1999 Web-based catalog helps Ohio students Instructor Cuts Dropout Rate by Giving Extra Attention to On-Line Students posted 5:30:55 PM ZDNet: Inter@ctive Week: Protest Group Out To "Destroy" eToys TheStandard.com: ARTICLE DISPLAY While eToys is busy making friends in the teddy-bear crowd, it's making a few foes among art and free-speech advocates. posted 4:58:51 PM Why I Won't Shop at eToys (Dan Gillmor) Wednesday, December 15, 1999 Have course, will fly posted 5:10:03 PM Zero-Knowledge Systems | Home of Freedom, Internet Privacy Software that transparently encrypts and anonymizes your Internet traffic posted 2:13:19 PM Tuesday, December 14, 1999 U.S. Defuses Microsoft Settlement Rumors posted 5:13:25 PM U.S. to Delay Until Jan. Encryption Export Rules The Chronicle: Daily news: 12/10/99 -- 01 Domineering students who monopolize class conversation can be as difficult in on-line courses as they are in traditional classrooms. But Jennifer Lieberman says instructors in distance-education courses can take steps to minimize the problem. posted 9:54:14 AM Course Home Page Online Learning: An Overview An online course for educators offered by the Illinois Online Network. posted 9:53:38 AM The Chronicle: Information Technology: December 17, 1999 Who Owns On-Line Courses? Colleges and Professors Start to Sort It Out The varying policies, on control and royalties, are increasingly the subject of contract talks posted 9:52:35 AM The Chronicle: Daily news: 12/14/99 -- 01 A Computer Program Eases the Task of Grading On- Line Essays posted 9:51:51 AM News, Views and a Silicon Valley Diary Unusually Sane Encryption Decision Monday, Dec. 13 -- Network Associates says it has gotten a federal go-ahead to export its PGP encryption software. Let's hope this decision also will extend soon to the freeware version of PGP. posted 9:51:14 AM Story: Jesse to Privacy Zealots: Back Off posted 9:45:26 AM Back Channels: The Intelligence Community n his 1997 book "Corporate Espionage," Ira Winkler, a former analyst and computer expert at the National Security Agency, wrote that there were probably fewer than 200 "computer geniuses" in the world who could actually find software vulnerabilities and another 1,000 hackers talented enough to take the geniuses' findings and use them to attack computer networks. [. . .] Winkler updated his estimates in a recent interview . . . . posted 9:44:20 AM Monday, December 13, 1999 Office 2000 [heh] Introducing the fully featured Office Suite of the Millennium!! posted 5:34:37 PM InfiNet ISP Gets Finite For US$19.95 a month, customers of InfiNet thought they were getting unlimited access to the company's dial-up Internet service. But unlimited, it turns out, is a relative term. Shopping by Bar Code By typing in the unique bar code number, known as the Universal Product Code (UPC), rather than keywords or product names, consumers can more accurately search for books, videos, music, and computer hardware and software. posted 2:47:41 PM More Grassroots Bush-Whacking Exley's goal is to raise enough money to produce three radio or TV ads, mocking Bush based on scripts he has posted on his site. One such ad portrays the Texas politician as a whiny pushover, struggling to memorize anti-drug slogans fed to him by campaign advisers engaged in a "good-cop/ bad cop" routine. Another ad criticizes Bush's easy acceptance to Yale despite inferior grades, and a third accuses Bush of being a draft dodger during the Vietnam War. posted 2:45:57 PM 8:58:56 AM    comment []

Scott Rosenberg. The geek-driven world of new "decentralized" technologies like Wi-Fi, blogging and Web services is more about cutting out the middleman than finding a business model. [Salon Headlines] Word. 6:42:08 AM    comment []

Rubicon Project update: The SpotLife Web site lists rubicon as one of the shows, but says, There are no shows being broadcast live at this time. Please try again later or surf our Channel Directory for featured shows. 2:58:00 AM    comment []