Saturday, February 07, 2004

(Watched *Lost in Translation* tonight. Great, great flick. Posted about it over at Andrew's place.) 10:34:01 PM    comment []

Sign Language for Babies An emerging new trend: enroll in a course that teaches you how to communicate with an infant using sign language. Even before babies can speak words like "da-da" and "ma-ma," they can sign words such as "hungry" and "tired," and understand when adults make those signs to them. Global Suburb sez Sounds just a wee bit faddish, eh? But it could also be fun. But I recall our daughter seemed to understand the "MORE" sign -- if this is talking about the same thing. We did this a little bit (not over the top, not us, uh uh). 10:15:09 PM    comment []

ego networks and their purposes. A basic and useful description of ego networks. I'm looking at this and thinking about the connection between event planners/generators and ego networks. The page mentions that the following are what ego networks do. They provide: -- Social support. Emotional... [social beasts] 6:08:32 PM    comment []

The Tyranny of Labels. Just about two weeks ago, Robert Boynton wrote a great piece for the Times about the free culture movement. It's not available for free from the Times anymore, though if you run this Google search, you'll find lots of places where it is archived. The Progress and Freedom Foundation has now launched an attack on "the movement." So let me note two important quibbles I have with an otherwise great article. First is scope: There is no complete history of this movement that does not mention Pam Samuelson, Jessica Litman, Eben Moglen, and more recently, Julie Cohen. Harvard's an important place in this, no doubt. But it is not accurate to speak as exclusively about Harvard. Litman and Samuelson made these issues salient. Moglen has been guiding the Free Software Foundation since the start. Second is spin: I know the world loves to simplify, but it is totally misleading to frame this issue as left vs. right. The name "Copy Left" is silly both because it is not true to the real "copyleft" movement -- started by RMS, et al., and because this movement is not a movement of "the Left." Look at the briefs in the Supreme Court in the Eldred if you want a flavor of this. Phyllis Schlafly and Milton Friedman are not leftists. It is important and great that Boynton's article made these ideas clearer to the world. But for those who read no more deeply than headlines, I'm afraid the real meaning of the Free Culture movement will be lost. UPDATE: Turns out there is a free link to the Times article still available, but you have to find it using Aaron's amazing tool (which I had stupidly missed before). [Lessig Blog] 10:08:30 AM    comment []

IBM DeveloperWorks: You don't exist. Go away. When I recently received a scam in the mail, I decided to discover how the scam worked. Unexpectedly, I ran into a problem: When I told the scammers my name, they didn't believe me. I've experienced that problem before. [Tomalak's Realm] 10:06:42 AM    comment []

Eisbrecher including 2 blank CD-Rs with new album. Eisbrecher Two blanks against the trend! The band has decided to make a statement for its fans and for music consumers in general and is releasing the album including a bonus DVD with 2 blank CD-Rs which have the same label as the CD itself. Alexx Wesselsky (singer and head of the group): We are of the opinion that the music buyers are criminalized enough and have been made responsible for the wretched state in the music industry. We are giving them the chance to make 2 legal copies for private use with 'official blanks'. It can't always be that the end users have to take the blame for something that international corporations have arranged with their artist-burning methods. via Ted Ritzer: Free Music via rojisan and Joi Ito's Web. 10:03:40 AM    comment []

Best Picture No Doubt. Just finished watching Lost in Translation on DVD for the first time, and it was just as good as it was in the theater. It's fantastic. You really need to see this movie if you haven't already.... [Andrew Bayer is Dreaming of China] It's on top of the TV, waiting for me to watch it this weekend. 9:57:48 AM    comment []

FBI asks computer shops to help fight cybercrime, by Peter Boylan, Honolulu Advertiser. Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Crime Squad have been approaching O'ahu computer-repair specialists, network consultants and software developers and asking them to report any overtly criminal activity they find in customers' computers. Owners of computer repair shops reported that FBI agents have come calling for at least a year. Some business owners and network security consultants favor the approach, which enlists old-school police beat work to combat high-tech crime. Others — like the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Hawai'i and some local computer users — are wary of the tactic, saying it comes dangerously close to violating a person's privacy rights. 3:27:12 AM    comment []