Monday, September 06, 2004

Are we there yet?. USA Today reports that "Honda Motor,with help from partner IBM,is preparing to introduce an improved speech-recognition system that will allow drivers to get voice navigation guidance without having to manually punch in any information or take their eyes off the... [Smart Mobs] 8:41:53 PM    comment []

Bush military file lacks required records. On CNN Bush's National Guard file disputed. On USA Today: Washington [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 8:39:41 PM    comment []

A Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican. This is priceless; add it to the annals of false consciousness studies. [The Leiter Reports: Editorials, News, Updates] http://tvnewslies.org/Day_in_The_Life_Of_Joe_Middle1.pdf Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised. All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.  . . . Its noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression. Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his life-time. Joe is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dads; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republican’s would still be sitting in the dark) He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show, the host’s keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn’t tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day)  Joe agrees, “We don’t need those big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I’m a self made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have”. 2:36:55 PM    comment []

Adaptive Path: Organization in the Way: How decentralization hobbles the user experience. Peter Meholz. Right now, the biggest obstacle to good design is poor organizational structure. The fundamental makeup of most organizations runs contrary to producing quality designs, and as organizations get larger, this becomes increasingly apparent. [Tomalak's Realm] 2:32:23 PM    comment []

America Today and South Africa in 1948. Perhaps the relevant analogy is not Germany in the 1930s; perhaps it is South Africa in 1948. Historian Timothy Burke (Swarthmore) makes an interesting case for another rather dreadful scenario. An excerpt: "The current leadership of the Republican Party strikes me as being equally capable of sustaining a long-term authoritarian 'emergency' whose ultimate fate is certain but whose misery could be horribly prolonged. The speeches at the Republican Convention, most especially those by Giulani, Miller and Cheney, made it clear that the current leadership of the Republican Party is rolling the dice and going for broke. They’re not going to compromise here and bend there, acknowledge dissent on some points or soften their policies where prudent. They’re pushing a total, rigid program of social and political transformation that serves the needs and desires of a sizeable minority of Americans and imposes their authority over the will of the majority. Like the National Party in South Africa, they may be able to accomplish this by taking advantage of the peculiarities of American electoral politics—and like the National Party, they may have both the will and the methods to permanently alter the structure of American constitutional democracy so as to lock their control of the government for as long a perpetuity as they can manage." [The Leiter Reports: Editorials, News, Updates] 8:02:41 AM    comment []

Congress busy working on file sharing and digital copyright issues. PC World's October issue brings an article about the current growth of file-sharing despite heavy attack from the MPAA and the RIAA. Also has a list of bills that Congress is busy trying to pass. S 2560 (Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act) would hold technology and service companies liable if their products or devices were found to encourage or"induce" copyright violations, such as by making illegal copies of songs or movies. This legislation paints a virtual bull's-eye on P-to-P software vendors, but also could have far-reaching consequences for other copying technologies. The bill could go up for a vote this year. HR 107 (Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act) would allow consumers to make backup copies of DVDs, an activity currently prohibited under the DMCA. It would also allow companies to create products that enable lawful copying or backing up of copyrighted content. The bill remains far from a vote, but could figure into the final crafting of the Induce Act. S 2235 (Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act)-better known as the PIRATE Act-would enable the Department of Justice to bring civil suits against suspected copyright violators. Civil actions have a lower burden of proof than criminal proceedings, making meaningful penalties against violators much more likely. This act was recently passed by the Senate. HR 4077 (Piracy Deterrence and Education Act) , now in full committee, lowers the bar for proving criminal misconduct in the sharing of copyrighted content by electronic means. Individuals who "with reckless disregard" make more than 1000 works. [unmediated] 7:58:19 AM    comment []

films to see before you vote. It is the nature of the net that just about the time you think, "there ought to be ...," there is. Here's a site with a collection of films relevant to the election. It would be better were there more that were clearly from the other side. Ideas? [Lessig Blog] 7:58:02 AM    comment []

Big tech on campus. College students are serving as guinea pigs for the digital lifestyle--but is tech marketing in schools getting out of control? [CNET News.com] 7:56:09 AM    comment []