Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Andrew's the man, in, What I Did At Work Today. Well, it wasn't work, I can tell you THAT much. I've spent the last couple hours getting something very nifty and yet very useless working: the "listening to..." column in the sidebar. It's akin to the Winamp trackback trick, but... 8:30:14 PM    comment []

build and free flags. So GNOME Desktop News has a great story about a project to build a comprehensive package of world flags in SVG format. The flags are then donated under a Creative Commons Public Domain license. The call for these flags went up Saturday. So far, there are 130 flags contributed. To see the flags so far, look here. Very cool. [Lessig Blog] 8:26:50 PM    comment []

SJ Mercury: 5 'exabytes' of information created in '02, report says. That task appealed to two masters of the megabyte, Peter Lyman and Hal Varian, professors at the University of California-Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems. Their first project to quantify the world's information in 2000 attracted so much interest that they decided to count it all over again this year. [Tomalak's Realm] 8:25:21 PM    comment []

DMCA grounds shaken in Lexmark cartridge case. NEW YORK - A ruling this week from the U.S. Copyright Office could strengthen manufacturer Static Control Components's (SCC's) defense against a copyright infringement lawsuit by Lexmark International that is expected to have a broad impact on the market for low-cost, third-party printer cartridges. [InfoWorld: Top News] 8:22:42 PM    comment []

Ideas Unlimited, Built to Order. Celebrities from a variety of fields talk about technologies or products they would like to see invented. By Seth Schiesel. [New York Times: Technology] 6:58:55 PM    comment []

Oct 28, 2003: Who forged the Niger documents?. [Kicking Ass] 6:34:10 AM    comment []

Dave, with what may be good news for the Salon Blogs gang/society/community: I'm just about ready to flip the switch on the new archive for Scripting News. We've also made major progress on bringing a new management team on board for UserLand. Hope to have the deal ready to announce next week. And to celebrate 500 days of No Smoking Dave, I placed an order for two new servers, to run in a new cage here in Boston. This is where I'm going to put various specs and public services that are currently running at UserLand, so the new team can focus on Manila and Radio. Murphy-willing there will be quite a few changes, for the better, in the remaining weeks of 2003. 6:31:44 AM    comment []

Personality style checker. Researchers Jon Oberlander and Alastair Gill at the University of Edinburgh have developed software they call the 'personality style checker'.The program checks the user's written email and suggests changes in the text to more closely match the personality the user wants.The prototype has three aspects of personality,those being tough minded, extrovert and emotional.Within those you get to choose various levels of those qualities you wish to portray.The article finishes by pointing out that "categories of personality types such as extrovert, for example, didn't necessarily hold up across cultures". Move over :-) [Smart Mobs] 6:29:30 AM    comment []

Pioneer has a new combination TiVo/DVD burner that lets you burn TV shows to DVD. Sadly, I fear it won't be legal for long. [Hack the Planet] 6:25:46 AM    comment []

CIA exhibits spy gadgets with Bond edge. On CNN via NewsIsFree: Popular Items. 6:24:28 AM    comment []

Annals of Boston University: As Trustees Waver, Choice to Lead University Vows a Fight. What had been anticipated as the proud installation of a new president at Boston University has become a showdown. By Sara Rimer. [New York Times: Education] At issue, several people close to the board have said, is a dispute over whether Mr. Goldin had slighted John Silber, who is stepping down as chancellor after 33 years at the university. Mr. Goldin's memorandum is at once conciliatory and tough, the correspondence of the experienced bureaucratic infighter that Mr. Goldin, who ran the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for nine years, is reputed to be. In it Mr. Goldin apologized if he had unintentionally offended any trustees in discussions over the terms of his job. He also repeated earlier assertions that he accepted the presidency on the condition that Dr. Silber, who has been reluctant to relinquish authority in the past, not remain in his job or on the board in any capacity. There can be only one president, Mr. Goldin wrote. Mr. Goldin informed the trustees that he had sold his house in Washington and scheduled a move to Boston for this Saturday, and that he and his wife, Judy, were in the process of donating most of our furnishings to local charities on Friday afternoon when he got a call about the committee's no-confidence vote. Then, he wrote, I had the sad task of informing my grandchildren that the inaugural might have to be canceled. Mr. Goldin makes it clear in the memorandum, which was first reported on Tuesday in The Boston Globe and a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, that he had clashed with some board members over the role Dr. Silber would play during his presidency. But he said that because Dr. Silber was stepping down as chancellor, those issues are behind us and require no further discussion. But he said that he would be ready if the trustees wanted a fight. Please know that I am advised by my personal attorney and by distinguished Boston counsel I have recently hired as to my rights, he wrote. I take those rights very seriously and will protect them vigorously. He also reminded the trustees that he had a binding contract. . . . At a meeting on Monday night, nine members of the executive committee of the faculty council drafted a statement that read, For the second time in 18 months we find ourselves embarrassed by the action of the board of trustees concerning the presidency of the university. We are convinced that this regrettable situation is in part due to one person's excessive influence in university affairs. We expect that when John Silber retires on Oct. 31 this situation will change, the statement continued. Some letter by Goldin, sounds like! 6:22:59 AM    comment []

A Growing Number of Video Viewers Watch From Crib. Many babies and toddlers are now immersed in electronic media for hours every day, according to a new study. By Tamar Lewin. [New York Times: Education] 6:11:23 AM    comment []

New Ways to Skirt DMCA ... Legally!. The U.S. Copyright Office gives consumers the right to work around certain provisions of the controversial law. Digital-rights advocates worry the exemptions don't go far enough. By Katie Dean. [Wired News] 6:03:43 AM    comment []

I'm speaking this afternoon at the Stem Cell Symposium sponsored by the St. Louis Science Center and the National Center for the Study of Orphan Diseases (at the Science Center, from 2:00 to 5:00, and also featuring poster presentations by St. Louis Public School high school students who are finalists in a research project covering the basic science, applications and ethical and legal implications of stem cell research). I'll mainly be talking about how technologies embody values and about limits to scientific research. It's free. 5:54:20 AM    comment []