Saturday, May 10, 2003

Dave: According to Tommy Williams, Microsoft's CMS has Edit This Page. He also says that Wikis do it, but unless I'm mistaken, they don't have a concept of user identity, which I would have to say is part of ETP. Tommy works at Microsoft. 11:05:52 PM    comment []

'Reefer Madness': Notes From the Underground Economy. Three essays by Eric Schlosser explore facets of America's estimated $650 billion black-market economy: marijuana, pornography and migrant labor. By Sam Sifton. [New York Times: Business] 10:59:40 PM    comment []

University president collapses, dies on commencement day. Via NewsIsFree: Popular Items. 10:58:15 PM    comment []

Mark Eckenwiler pointed me at this very helpful Anti-Telemarketing Script from JunkBusters. 3:00:05 PM    comment []

Boycotting the White House, by Lloyd Grove, The Washington Post. Hundreds of aging Yalies from the Class of 1968 have slapped down deposits to attend a White House picnic hosted by their classmate George W. Bush on the eve of their 35-year reunion. But a few stout party poopers are taking a stand. They tell us they wouldn't be caught dead with this particular president. I'm a member of the Yale Class of '68 who won't be attending the reunion event at the White House because of revulsion towards Bush's policies, writer Jacques Leslie told us yesterday from Mill Valley, Calif. The war in Iraq was unwarranted and promoted deceptively, his environmental policies are disastrous, and his attack on legal rights and constitutional rights is frightening. I wouldn't be able to shake his hand without showing hostility. Another classmate, University of Maryland computer science professor Steve Scolnik, demanded: If Mr. Bush is such a fan of Yale, why did I not see him at the three reunions I have attended out of the four held in the last two decades? Participating in the D.C. event is acting as a prop in a reelection campaign which is already underway. Adding insult to injury, participants are required to pay at least $150 per person for that privilege. What kind of hot dogs are they serving at this picnic, anyway? 8:26:25 AM    comment []

The Debate about Social Software. Is "social software" the new overhyped buzzword? In an article for the Guardian, Jack Schofield says yes. Obviously, Howard Rheingold has an opposite view. [Smart Mobs] 8:23:07 AM    comment []

Finite monkeys can't produce Shakespeare Six monkeys at the Paignton Zoo were provided with a word-processor for a month, to see if they'd produce anything like Shakespeare. No dice. Monkeys != playwrights. Remember that Apple ][+ app? "So close, so very close." The six monkeys - Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe and Rowan - produced five pages of text which consisted mainly of the letter "s". But towards the end of the experiment, their output slightly improved, with the letters A, J, L and M also appearing. [http://boingboing.net/2003_05_01_archive.html#200267592] 8:11:06 AM    comment []