Saturday, September 13, 2003

Hoping to Ace Algebra the Second Time. Whatever subject you were hopeless at back in grade school will rear its ugly head when you have to tackle it again with your children. By Lisa Belkin. [New York Times: Education] 10:11:08 PM    comment []

Wes on Scott McCloud's Misunderstanding Micropayments: BitPass, Shirky and The Good Idea that Refuses to Die. He has an obvious error in saying that there are mental transaction costs in a system where the customer never sees the payments, but it doesn't invalidate his other arguments. [Hack the Planet] 10:09:56 PM    comment []

Smart Mobs blinks Ordinary Lives, recorded for posterity, saying: The The Christian Science Monitor reports on two projects which will record the lives of ordinary people for posterity. - Telling Lives, is a pilot project of the American History Workshop, bringing together historians, scholars, curators, filmmakers, artists, designers, and architects together to find new ways of engaging citizens with history. Through interactive installation at museums, libraries, and community centers, it collects stories from visitors and patrons about such personal experiences as schooling, family interaction, work and play, food, travel, and community life. In a ten-minute interview, guided by a computer, your personal story is captured automatically and in total privacy on digital video. - Story Corps, a non profit organization, will be opening small recording studios in public spaces across the country. The first flagship «Story Booth» will launch in New York City's Grand Central Terminal in October. Visitors will be able to record their personal histories on a 40-minute audio CD for a nominal fee. StoryCorps will retain a copy for its database and for possible use in making public radio documentaries. 5:49:10 PM    comment []

Community Voice Mail Web site. (free voice mail for the homeless, poor and jobless around the country) 12:32:18 PM    comment []

Doc on The environmental impact of pissing matches. The Head Lemur visits the patent mess, which we've been writing about for years now, and which only gets worse: The hardest part of making a structural change in patents is the 'bug' of Intellectual Property, This is a Bug and not a feature. See SCO vs IBM. Definition of patents as IP is the basis of a lot of companies wealth for accounting purposes, resulting in the whole cottage industry of IP litigation. The rich get lawyers, we get the shaft. 8:36:42 AM    comment []

Edison Schools Posts First Quarterly Profit. Edison Schools reported its first quarterly profit eight years after it opened its first school. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Education] The wire story in the Times is really short and doesn't give any insight regarding what brought about the reversal. I'll try to notice a story that tells something more. 7:55:12 AM    comment []

Are You Too Stupid to Surf?. A lot of the bad things that happen online are preventable. Intelligent use of the Internet is the answer. But there are plenty of dopes out there who don't have a clue. Should we require Internet users to be licensed? [Wired News] 7:44:48 AM    comment []