Wednesday, December 17, 2003

In Iran, hopes for democracy dwindle. Reformers dispirited as candidates registered for parliamentary vote. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 10:26:45 PM    comment []

How the Entertainment Cartel Helped Promote Encryption. Speaking of worthy new essays, don't miss Clay Shirky's "The RIAA Succeeds Where the Cypherpunks Failed" -- a fine explanation... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] 9:51:20 PM    comment []

Striking Workers Plan Safeway Boycotts. Labor leaders from around the country marched with striking grocery workers in California on Tuesday and backed their call for one-day walkouts nationally. By Nick Madigan. [New York Times: Business] 4:18:34 PM    comment []

Seeing through slides. Scott Rosenberg: The single deadliest thing a speaker can do is read from his own slides. Agreed. It always exasperates me to see slides used as speakers notes rather than as helpful visual aids. Want to know how to give a good presentation with slides? Here's what I learned from two masters. It's more than a half-decade old, but its tips are no less useful. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 7:10:43 AM    comment []

No, Really, You Can't Copy These. Philips Electronics is about to launch a new digital rights management system. They say encoded songs can be played anywhere on any device, but absolutely cannot be copied. Hackers, take note. [Wired News] 7:08:55 AM    comment []

Commentary: McDonald's plays it cool on hot spots [CNET News.com - Front Door] Unsigned. Uphost is slower rollout -- changed plans, I don't know about playing it cool. Put Wi-Fi hot spots where they're likely to be used, is the ''new'' plan. 7:04:14 AM    comment []

Five motorcycle riders from Banlung. This article details innovative ICT projects from India,Vietnam,Malaysia,Thailand,and Cambodia that delegates heard about at the World Summit on the Information Society.It leads with the story of the daily routine of five motorcycle riders who leave Banlung in Cambodia to go to 13 rural villages to provide them with Internet access. Their bikes are equipped with a Wi-Fi wireless communication system inside a rear-mounted box with an antenna to enable e-mails to be relayed to schools in the villages via satellite dishes.They begin their day by collecting e-mails from the hub's dish and as they pass each school and a health center, they transmit the messages. At the end of the day, they return to the hub to transmit all the collected e-mail to the Internet. E-mails on Wheels at Info Society Summit [Smart Mobs] 7:01:26 AM    comment []

Maybe you've wondered, what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow: Hashing out the classic question with Strouhal numbers and simplified flight waveforms. by Jonathan Corum. 4:21:53 AM    comment []