Friday, January 02, 2004

Joe Conason's Journal. This year's election might turn out just as our journalistic soothsayers predict. But the unknowable and unforeseeable almost always intervene. [Salon Headlines] 10:55:33 PM    comment []

The 2004 Bruce Sterling State of the World Address -- an interview and discussion at The Well's Inkwell. 3:39:47 PM    comment []

JPBz. John Perry Barlow has a blog: BarlowFriendz. Read any post's comments for a Who's Who of blogreading noösphere. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 3:37:38 PM    comment []

From Vinyl to Digital, Hold the Crackle. To turn your LP's into CD's, you will need some hardware, specifically a turntable, a preamplifier and a computer. By Roy Furchgott. [New York Times: Technology] 10:29:12 AM    comment []

how I changed my iBook's DVD player into a region-free player. I decided to do a little more research into how I might be able to turn my iBook's DVD player into a region free DVD player. Then on an impulse, I implemented what I learned -- and it worked! So... [explodedlibrary.info] 10:27:48 AM    comment []

A Lonely Voice in China Is Critical on Rights and Reform. Wang Hui's essays provide an interesting and comprehensive critique of China's Promethean reform movement and its unique form of Leninist capitalism. By Orville Schell. [New York Times: Business] 10:22:17 AM    comment []

The Future of Security, by Scott Berinato, ComputerWorld. 9:25:16 AM    comment []

Beyond Singles and Concept Albums, Pop Yearns for a Long Form. Artists have shown a perennial need for music that transcends a three-minute limit. But songs with lyrics are harder to expand, unless instrumentally fleshed out. By John Rockwell. [New York Times: Business] 7:54:18 AM    comment []

bOing bOing lets us know about 2003 Google Zeitgeist most forwarded NYT stories of 2003 (not in a special Radio Userland last-a-long-while link, sorry) bOing bOing's own 2003 stats The Miss Digital World pageant -- a beauty contest for digitally-rendered women such as Lara Croft and Ananova the possibly illegal USB HDTV tuner (See bOing bOing on possible (likely?) illegality.) a free Flash game based on the Philippino call-center industry Public Domain day in Canada -- in our Neighbor to the North, and any other countries still subscribed to the author's-life-plus-fifty-years rule for copyright term, the published works of everyone who died in 1953 became public domain yesterday. (And, in Canada, the unpublished works of anyone who died in 1948 or earlier.) That would include: These people include Polish poet Julian Tuwim, British mathematician Alan Turing, Dutch children's author Hugo Pilon, Russian author and Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, metaphyisical author Baird Spalding, Norwegian novelist and Nobel laureat Knut Hamsun, playwright and Nobel laureate Eugene O'Neill (1953 was a bad year for Nobel laureates!), Irish poet and Yeats' one-time lover Maud Gonne, Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas (bad year for poets!), country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams, French author Hilaire Belloc, American historian J.G. Randall, Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (bad year for Russians!), founder of Saudi Arabia Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, Maria Montessori of school fame, and many more. 7:52:04 AM    comment []

Music 2003: Rock is dead (once more with feeling). Forget those boring white boys with guitars. Thanks to Missy, OutKast and Timbaland, for the first time since the Beatles, the most vital forms of pop are found at the top of the charts. [Salon Headlines] 7:35:28 AM    comment []

What the net did next. Mark Ward on BBC News : The internet is set to become the basis for just about every form of communication, according to net pioneer Vint Cerf, and he should know what he is talking about. To begin with, Cef thinks, the net will stop being a part of the telephone network. Instead the telephone network will become a part of the net. You are going to see a fairly dramatic increase in services riding on top of basic internet infrastructure, Cerf said, You will see more and more layers of functionality showing up in the net. The full report is online at the BBC site. (thanks, Smart Mobs!) 7:27:16 AM    comment []