Monday, November 10, 2003

berklee's lessons for everyone. Today, the Berklee College of Music has released Berklee Shares, a site offering free music lessons for downloand. All content is available under a Creative Commons license, including mp3s embedded with CC licenses. Free lessons for musicians, and a valuable lesson for the rest of us. Bravo. [Lessig Blog] 5:12:57 PM    comment []

Borders employees go on strike: Downtown store remains open as other workers brought in. BY Tom Gantert, Ann Arbor News. [Borders spokeswoman Anne] Roman said the downtown Borders is one of two nationwide that has formed a union. The other is in Minneapolis. Borders employee Allison Nadeau held a picket sign Saturday and said employees want respect. I believe the retail worker is the new blue collar worker, Nadeau said. We need to make a living wage. There has to be an end to corporate greed. We are all being treated like we don't deserve to make a decent living. Borders' philosophy is we are a bunch of unskilled people who don't deserve what we are asking for. Nadeau also said workers resent a company policy that all employees have their bags checked, sometimes in front of customers, before leaving the store at the end of their shifts. . . . Michele Jones of Ann Arbor came to Borders Saturday afternoon with her daughter and a store gift card. Jones stopped short of the entrance when she saw the employees picketing. She watched as one woman holding a picket sign yelled at people entering, Please take a moment to hear why we are here! Another man walking the picket line angrily shouted What are you doing? at people entering the store. I'd rather not cross it, Jones said, motioning for her daughter to follow as they walked away. 1:41:22 PM    comment []

Microsoft faces showdown at EU corral, by David Lawsky (Reuters). The European Commission will listen to the software giant at a closed-door hearing, which from Wednesday to Friday will give both Microsoft and its critics a chance to argue their case. This is going to be the biggest set-piece battle since the oral hearing in GE-Honeywell case, said Simon Baxter, head of European competition for the law firm Clifford Chance. Microsoft can't be relishing the prospect of having to face the Commission and all the complainants sitting three feet in front of them, added Baxter, who argued for GE in its bid for Honeywell International, which the Commission scuppered. . . . The Commission says that to even out the competition, it is considering forcing Microsoft to remove its multimedia playing software from Windows and tell rivals how to get Windows to work better with server software. A final decision is expected in the spring, unless Microsoft reaches a separate deal with the Commission first. An amicable settlement would help both sides by avoiding a long, expensive court challenge by Microsoft. But it is unclear whether the company would be willing to accept the remedies and fine the Commission wants. RealNetworks dominated the file player market until Microsoft integrated its Media Player into Windows, when its market share jumped. With server software, the Commission's goal is to allow rival servers to connect as easily as Microsoft's to desktop computers running Windows. Microsoft's share of this market has increased even while the investigation has been going on. 12:41:13 PM    comment []

Anti-Virus vendors shun Microsoft bounty hunters, by John Leyden, in The Register. 11:41:07 AM    comment []

Yakuza using high-tech to blackmail closeted Japanese gays 11:41:03 AM    comment []

Back in April, the New York Times reported White House to Start Online Forum. Whatever happened to that? There are some ''chats'' that turn up on a search (though they're with Lynne Cheney and someone named Jim Wilkinson, rather than with the Prez), but the ones I tried to follow are 404, and they're all from, like, April and June. 10:41:10 AM    comment []

Military to use Alphatech to stop denial-of-service attack, by Frank Tiboni, Federal Computer Week. Alphatech's top information assurance product is the Alphatech Light Autonomic Defense System, which protects networks and key nodes by detecting, diagnosing, countering and recovering against malicious-code attacks such as worms. It wasn't immediately clear if Alphatech's products provide a so-called active network defense, something that JTF-CNO sought since 2000. Active defenses track down hackers with techniques that trace the origin of the attacks. They include the use of mobile agents that scour routers linking networks, survey probes that scan data passing through networks for clues about ongoing or attempted intrusions, and beaconing and tagging programs that detect suspicious activity in data packets and trace their origin. JTF-CNO's request to deploy active network defenses may cross both technological and legal boundaries, since an active defense can be considered a matter of law enforcement that goes beyond mere security. 10:41:05 AM    comment []

Melanie Mills/Elisabeth von Hullessem -- writers' conference scam? Writer Beware has learned that Melanie Mills (d.b.a. M.W. Mills Literary Agent, of Myrtle Beach, SC) was the US alias of Elisabeth von Hullessem (a.k.a. Roswitha Elisabeth von Meerscheidt-Hullessem), who was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia on Oct. 30, 2003 for setting up a fake writers' conference in Banff, B.C., and absconding with the proceeds. von Hullessem is wanted in Arkansas and Missouri on multiple charges of fraud and assault, including attempted murder. Between 2000 and 2003, Writer Beware received numerous complaints about "literary agent" Melanie Mills, involving the charging of upfront fees and the promotion of paid editing services. In May 2003 Mills organized a phantom writers' conference (to which Writer Beware staff was invited, believe it or not); we're sure it was a test run for the much more elaborate conference scam in British Columbia. In June 2003, Mills' clients received a report that Mills had been killed in a car crash in Germany; in reality Mills had left South Carolina some weeks earlier. The North Myrtle Beach Police Department is currently investigating Ms. Mills' activities, which include not just literary fraud but eBay auction scams and real estate rental fraud. When news about the Banff conference scam first came out, Writer Beware staff were struck by the similarity to Melanie Mills' fake writers' conference, and also by the similar writing styles of the solicitation letters sent out by von Hullessem and correspondence we'd seen from Mills. Once von Hullessem was arrested, we contacted the RCMP. They were already investigating the South Carolina connection, but we were able to fill them in on Mills' activities in South Carolina and also to put them in touch with the North Myrtle Beach police detective in charge of Mills' case. We don't know if Mills will ever be prosecuted in South Carolina. Arkansas is requesting extradition once she faces charges in Canada. We're continuing to collect information on Mills'/von Hullessem's US activities, and would like to hear from clients of M.W. Mills, as well as from any writers who paid for the US writers' conference. Please contact us at beware@sfwa.org . 10:41:00 AM    comment []

Chinese Court Rejects Appeal Of Net Dissidents. 10:40:55 AM    comment []

Cisco-Sprint Partnership Targets Auto Dealers: The companies will sell the infrastructure for business communications between the dealers and carmakers. By Antone Gonsalves, Information Week. 9:40:49 AM    comment []

The importance of explicit shared rules in online communities (and everywhere else). One of the difficulties in online communities is that problems crop up because there are no explicit shared rules that are readable by all. This "authority vacuum" can lead to situations where one user in a community attempts to censure another for behav [Learning the Lessons of Nixon] 6:59:41 AM    comment []

4 Highest-Paid University Presidents Top $800,000 a Year. The era of the million-dollar college president is fast approaching, according to an annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. By Tamar Lewin. [New York Times: Education] 6:58:55 AM    comment []

Unhappy in Class, More Are Learning at Home. In New York City, which compiled citywide statistics for the first time this year, 1,800 children are being home schooled, making them part of a growing national trend. By Jane Gross. [New York Times: Education] 6:58:12 AM    comment []

A Peek Inside the Secret World. Technological innovation owes a debt to that earliest of the early adopters: the spy. A new museum in Washington, D.C., celebrates spies, their gadgetry and the shadow world they inhabit. Michelle Delio reports from Washington. [Wired News] 6:52:35 AM    comment []

As we near the end on the Tehran <-> Washington, DC 1970-1973 teen girl blog, Kathy writes to Hilary, June 26, 1973, from Tehran, Iran. . . . . I can always seek consolation in Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (think they have them in Texas?) and my memories of my week in Rome. . . . 6:47:46 AM    comment []

Four years ago in my weblogging: Microsoft Financial Fraud Update Microsoft's a monopoly. Now what? By Rebecca Lynn Eisenberg FEED | Essay: Command Performance Filtered Internet Services Reach More Religious Groups A.F.L.-C.I.O. Members to Get Online Access and Discounts Republicans Plan to Offer Online Access for Loyalists FTC studies 'profiling' by Web sites Online Profiling Workshop U.S. Judges Criticize Latest Internet Porn Law (It seems to me that in terms of the World Wide Web, what the statute contemplates is that we would be remitted to the most severe standards, perhaps those of Iran or Iraq. Are we all going to be remitted to the standards of the residents of Utah or the Amish community?) For Seriously Ill Children, Chat Rooms Are More Than a Diversion Lawsuit Says AOL Shuts Out the Blind FTC Asked To Examine Data Profiling Practices Want a Better Memory? Have a Baby 4:39:55 AM    comment []

Andrew asked for book recommendations in preparation for his hotel stay in San Jose later this month. Some thoughts: Haven't read this one, but heard an interview on The Diane Rehm Show: Running from the Devil: A Memoir of a Boy Possessed, by Steve Kissing. Sounded good. I read Dracula earlier this year, and dug it. I'd never read it before, knowing it mainly from the pop culture side, and it had a very different feel from what I'd anticipated: terribly Gothic, yes, but alsooddly nuanced, on account of its narrative style. My most frequently recommended book is Empire of the Ants. At the outset, a young man in Paris has bequeathed to him a fine apartment by the eccentric uncle in the family. It comes with only one instruction: Above all, never go in the cellar. So, of course, what does he do? Right. One of the main characters in the novel is an ant colony. Some but not all to whom I've recommended this have loved it; nobody's hated it so far as I know. The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography, by Simon Singh, is pretty clear and included historical nooks and crannies that were new to me. Persian Nights, by Diane Johnson, feels a lot like I remember Iran feeling when I lived there not far before the time in which it is set. It's also a nicely drawn story with a fine little mystery wrapped up inside it. Crypto Anarchy, Cyber States, and Pirate Utopias, edited by Peter Ludlow, covers the territory of political philosophy and real experience concerning Internet and cyberspace governance. Might be more dense than you want chilling out at night in your room. If you haven't read them, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, by Howard Rheingold, and Jessica Litman's Digital Copyright: Protecting Intellectual Property on the Internet are definitely worth your time. Ellen Ullman's novel, The Bug, likened by one reviewer to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. How Monkeys See the World: Inside the Mind of Another Species, by Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth, is one of the better things I've ever read. Clear writing, clever experimental design, yielding valuable insights. A classic in the social sciences, and quite readable, Tally's Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men, by Elliot Liebow. I'm assuming you already have run through the cyberpunk canon, so I won't recommend, say, Snow Crash, Islands in the Net (out of print!), or All Tomorrow's Parties. But you might not have read Neal Stephenson's first, semi-repudiated novel, The Big U. It's not great literature by a long shot, but it's entusiastic and a fun read. It also has a scene that prefigures a great scene from Snowcrash, for whatever that's worth. And it would be a shame for not to plug my own, On Berkeley, which sympathetically reviews the philosophy of the British empiricist and idealist philosopher. 2:39:39 AM    comment []