Wednesday, February 25, 2004

HP Labs' "Blog Epidemic Analyzer". Eytan Adar, Li Zhang, Lada A. Adamic, and Rajan M. Lukose of HP Labs, Information Dynamics Lab have been studying the diffusion of memes through the blogosphere. If you are interested in the patterns and dynamics of meme-transmission, examining the way certain ideas and posts travel from blog to blog can serve as an ongoing memetics experiment. In "Implicit Structure and the Dynamics of Blogspace", they describe "a new ranking algorithm, iRank, for blogs." Check out this applet that enables you to see the way memes travel from blog to blog over time: The Blog Epidemic Analyzer. [Smart Mobs] 11:15:08 PM    comment []

Guess where I'm IM'ing from! Soccer and wireless. The people of Brazil can now mix soccer with wireless technology. The Maracanã Stadium gains wireless access to the internet in high speed. To access the net, is necessary to have a PDA or notebook with Wi-Fi. The net was constructed with an access point, that allows navigation in up to 11 Mbps. The network of Maracanã is part of a project of Telemar and Oi to implement more hotspots in the country. :: from Estadão [Smart Mobs] 11:07:57 PM    comment []

The results of the Columbia Small World experiment I blogged previously are now being reported. An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks, by Peter Sheridan Dodds,1 Roby Muhamad,2 Duncan J. Watts1,2 *, in Science. back story from around a year ago, and also last August. 8:28:15 PM    comment []

RSA Panel: Cryptography Can't Foil Human Weakness, by Mark Hachman, eWeek. 12:26:59 PM    comment []

Benton Headline from Kevin T.: QWEST TO OFFER DSL SEPARATE FROM PHONE "Naked DSL" may be coming your way, but don't delete this email from your spam folder. Qwest is the first regional Bell telephone company that will offer high-speed digital-subscriber-line (DSL) Internet service to customers who are not regular phone subscribers as well. This company policy change will allow more consumers to choose alternative local phone service providers or even go all-wireless for phone service. Consumer advocates endorsed the move by the Denver company. "We love lots of different pricing options for consumers," says Chris Murray, legislative counsel for Consumers Union Qwest's new a la carte DSL service is particularly timely, he says, because more consumers are experimenting with alternative ways of making calls. The other regional Bells may follow suit, but not anytime soon, it appears. Why did Qwest make the move? "We decided we'd rather not lose the customer," said Qwest Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Notebaert. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shawn Young shawn.young@wsj.com] (requires subscription) 9:26:30 AM    comment []

Forbes: The Coming RSS Revolution. [Scripting News] 7:21:48 AM    comment []

Interview with a Six Figure Simolean Seller. In this interview we meet a well known TSO and eBay simolean seller. Badly injured ten years ago in a steel factory explosion, he has... [The Alphaville Herald] 7:15:22 AM    comment []

Defiant Downloads Rise From Underground. Recording industry lawyers consider Tuesday's protest, where over 300 Web sites offered downloads of "The Grey Album," 24 hours of mass copyright infringement. By Bill Werde. [New York Times: Technology] 7:11:43 AM    comment []

Union Urges Bush to Replace Education Chief Over Remark. Education Secretary Rod Paige compared the nation's largest teachers union to a "terrorist organization" because of its criticism of President Bush's education law. By Sam Dillon and Diana Jean Schemo. [New York Times: Business] 7:08:49 AM    comment []

Bull Session With Professor IPod. Dr. Michael Bull is the world's leading expert on the societal impact of personal stereos. Bull wrote the definitive treatment on the Walkman, and now he's turned his attention to the iPod. A Q & #038;A with Leander Kahney. [Wired News] 7:03:06 AM    comment []

King Kaufman's Sports Daily. The "Enronic" nature of sex- and booze-soaked college sports programs. Plus: ESPN's "Dream Job" and Stuart Scott -- boo-yah or bum-rush? The readers write. [Salon.com] 7:00:03 AM    comment []