Saturday, January 31, 2004

January 31, 2004. Geodog: “So I walked into the cafe tonight and looked around for the Joel group -- like any other geek, I was too shy to ask anyone, but when I spotted a big table lined entirely with males, mostly in their mid-twenties to early forties, not too well dressed, predominantly European-American, I knew that I had found the geek gathering.” [Joel on Software] 6:59:23 PM    comment []

"used without permission. please don't sue us.". A Peanuts (re)Mix. [Lessig Blog] 6:03:05 PM    comment []

And Now a Word From Op-Ed. Here at the Op-Ed page, there are certain questions that are as constant as the seasons. Let me try to offer a few answers. By David Shipley. [New York Times: Opinion] 2:59:06 PM    comment []

BNA News reported earlier in the week SIX PLEAD GUILTY IN COMPUTER SOFTWARE HEIST: Six people have pled guilty to stealing and distributing computer software around the world after undercover agents got into the operation and sorted through millions of computer transactions to build cases against them. It took authorities three years to compile the case, entering secret networks, seizing computers, tracking connection records and matching coded transactions with suspects. 2:29:13 PM    comment []

People's Republic of China Controls tighten as Internet activism grows (Amnesty International) 11:33:24 AM    comment []

uiweb: How to manage smart people. Over the years I've experienced many mistakes and successes in both how I was managed, and how I managed others. What follows is a short distillation of some of what I've learned. There's no one way to manage people, but there are some approaches that I think most good managers share. [Tomalak's Realm] 9:56:57 AM    comment []

Hibernation, Insulation and Caffeination. Most of the mammals in the north change into a denser and deeper winter coat by late fall. Man survives by taking his coat from them. By Bernd Heinrich. [New York Times: Opinion] 9:52:24 AM    comment []

Electronic voting: USACM letter on serious concerns raised by a broad coalition of computer scientists regarding the security and trustworthiness of electronic voting systems and H.R. 2239, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003 the Senate version, S. 1980 A report by computer scientists who participated in a security review of the Department of Defense’s online voting project “Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment” (SERVE) 4:32:18 AM    comment []

hoder's reporting on a phony Iranian Member of Parliament's weblog of the sit in. (Looks like you need to go to the top page to read the sidebar with the English translations of the Persian weblog posts.) 12:07:40 AM    comment []

CALPIRG Education Fund: Rip-off 101: How The Current Practices Of The Textbook Industry Drive Up The Cost Of Collge Textbooks. "According to the Association of American Publishers and the National Association of College Stores, paper, printing and editorial costs account for an average of 32.3 cents of every dollar of the textbook cost--the largest share of the total." This is an interesting way of presenting the data so that it can't be analyzed. Online textbooks reduce the paper and printing cost, but we aren't told what that is. The report doesn't even consider non-profit textbook publishing. [Hack the Planet] 12:05:06 AM    comment []