Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Bloki is "a Web site on which you can create Web pages, right in your browser, with no additional software required. Think of it as a word processor for the Web." [Scripting News] 9:59:35 PM    comment []

Two from Purportal.com Headlines: E-mail hoax rears its ugly head again. An e-mail message again is making the rounds with the bogus claim that credit bureaus soon will be authorized to hand out your personal financial data to anyone who asks. Urban legend on personal credit information spreads. A report circulating on the Internet stating that a consumer's personal credit information will soon be available to anyone is an example of an "urban legend," according to state officials. 9:56:15 PM    comment []

The best television criticism not only tells about the show(s) in question, but about their political implications and, moreover, draws for us from them a moral about understanding socio-political dimensions of the Real World(tm). I remember especially a Tom Carson column in The Village Voice, circa 1982, that briefly discussed what was true about the world that made it that ''classy'' restaurants on, say, Dynasty, looked like Beefsteak Charlie's rather than anything like really classy restaurants. Here's another example of that kind of fine TV criticism. The unthinkable made real. Fox's tough and complicated "24" ends its terrifying season by reminding us that the political nightmares of the last few years -- the Clinton impeachment, Bush vs. Gore, 9/11 -- really happened. Charles Taylor, in Salon. 9:51:13 PM    comment []

Can the Web beat Big Media?. FCC czar Michael Powell says new technologies will let diversity flourish even as giant corporations consolidate their control over TV and newspapers. Dream on. [Salon.com] 9:36:59 PM    comment []

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. I mean, really, how far do I have to go for an example? Same page of the News Aggregator gives me one, and I wasn't even looking: Opera wails about MSN problem. About a third of Opera's users are getting an error message when they try to access Microsoft's MSN, the browser upstart says. MSN says the problem, if any, is perfectly innocent. [CNET News.com] 9:34:41 PM    comment []

Tomalak's Realm: Network World: Microsoft, Symantec give different recipes for frying spam. The centerpiece of Gates' antispam plan was a proposal to establish global independent trust authorities that could certify legitimate e-mail solicitations, champion best practices and serve as a mediating body for customer disputes. Legitimate e-mail solicitation firms would receive a "seal" identifying them as a trusted sender. Great. Sure. Yeah. What would be the transaction framework for this, billg? Hailstorm (or whatever it's called now)? Wonderful. Let's give Microsoft control of our e-mail infrastructure. The folks who are eager to ''cut off the air supply'' of competitors really ought to have their hands on all our throats, able to ''disappear'' anyone by revoking their identity or their trust documents. Caramba! 9:31:43 PM    comment []

Born Digital. A survey conducted by the San Jose Mercury News and the Kaiser Family Foundation explores access to and use of computers and the Internet among 10 to 17 year olds living in Silicon Valley.The survey was conducted among a randomly selected representative group of 804 young people living in Silicon Valley and their parents between October and December 2002 Survey on Youth and the Internet in the Silicon Valley [Smart Mobs] 9:22:18 PM    comment []

The sounds of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet): An audio cassette or CD now available. (thanks, Otis!) 4:33:42 PM    comment []

Neal Stephenson will be on book tour behind Quicksilver. Dates and locations as of today: /Reading/Signing Wednesday, September 24, 2003 07:30 PM POWELL'S BOOKSTORE Portland, OR Tel: 503-228-4651 x489 /Reading/Signing Thursday, September 25, 2003 07:30 PM CODY'S BOOKS Berkeley, CA Tel: 510-845-0837 /Reading/Signing Friday, September 26, 2003 07:30 PM KEPLER'S Menlo Park, CA Tel: 650-594-5935 /Reading/Signing Monday, September 29, 2003 07:30 PM BOULDER BOOKSTORE Boulder, CO Tel: 303-447-2074 /Reading/Signing Tuesday, September 30, 2003 07:30 PM TATTERED COVER (LODO) Denver, CO Tel: 303-322-1965 X2745 /Speaking/Signing Wednesday, October 01, 2003 07:00 PM BOOKPEOPLE Austin, TX Tel: 512-472-4288 /Reading/Signing Thursday, October 02, 2003 07:00 PM BORDERS #01 Ann Arbor, MI /Speaking/Signing Tuesday, October 07, 2003 07:00 PM BARNES AND NOBLE UNION SQUARE New York, NY Tel: 212-957-1625 (More news about Quicksilver from A blog doesn't need a clever name.) 11:19:57 AM    comment []

Interactive Philosophy Quiz This is your chance to pit your knowledge of philosophy against a computer opponent. 9:19:37 AM    comment []

Wi-Fi with a pint. By years end according to a commercial plan to be presented on Wednesday in London, a total of 3,000 British pubs will form the backbone of what could become the first nationwide Wi-Fi network in Europe with a goal of up to 21,000 sites projected. Most existing Wi-Fi hot spots in Europe are in public places like airports or hotels and are aimed at travellers. Some Wi-Fi hot spots are free, and others charge. But coverage will spread from Norway's harbours to medieval Spanish towns, and International Data Corp., a technology consultancy, predicts that the number of European hot spots will grow to 32,500 by 2007.But is it a viable business?Even Intel admits that no one knows how popular the service will really be or which business model will prove profitable. "We are living in the dark ages of mobile data," said Claus Bjornsten, Intel's European Business Development manager for the mobile platforms group. Eager to try Wi-Fi? Head to a pub [Smart Mobs] 6:18:03 AM    comment []

Great work: dissecting arguments for investigating library patron information under the Patriot act. ALA Aiding And Abetting Terrorists. [explodedlibrary.info] 6:15:42 AM    comment []

Pentagon Defends Data Search Plan. In a report released Tuesday, the Pentagon tried to reassure critics that its controversial Total Information Awareness program is not a danger to civil liberties. To prove that point, it also changed the program's name. By Ryan Singel. [Wired News] 6:12:36 AM    comment []