Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Pennington and Reporters Sack Each Other. On Monday, in a sometimes contentious news conference, Jets quarterback Chad Pennington gave two explanations for refusing to field questions after Sunday's victory. By By RICHARD LEZIN JONES. [NYT > Sports] Meanwhile, Mark Cuban (the Blog Maverick) commands: Hey Chad , get a blog !, saying You need a place where you can explain yourself. You can write as much or as little as you would like, but the words will be all yours. You can create the context. You can make sure that all issues are addressed. You can take issue with individuals, or the media as a whole. Your words, your message. As the starting quarterback of the Jets, it will get read. It will get referenced. It will give you balance against the “power of the pen”, in a voice that cant be misquoted or referenced out of context. If you need any help setting it up, just drop me an email ! 9:11:23 PM    comment []

Judge denies guilty plea in AOL spam case. Ex-AOL employee's hearing is postponed; judge cites vagueness in prosecutors' argument that theft violated Can-Spam. [CNET News.com] 9:04:27 PM    comment []

Wes: The Tor anonymous Internet communication system has an oniony, user-friendly new Web site to go along with their EFF funding. Besides hiding from government and big business snoops, Tor is also great when using open wireless networks. [Hack the Planet] 9:03:50 PM    comment []

Washington Post to Announce Its Purchase of Slate.com. The Washington Post Company is expected to announce that it has purchased Slate, an online newsmagazine owned by Microsoft. By DAVID CARR. [NYT > Business] 11:23:12 AM    comment []

Oyez, oyez. Since we're on a roll with the opinion polling this morning, here's another one to stick in your stocking: Just about two-thirds of Americans cannot name a Supreme Court justice. Ignorance is bliss, you say? The folks at the Center for American Progress would disagree (and we do, too). And since George W. Bush will name at least one high court nominee next year, probably in the mold of his two favorite justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, CAP wants to let Americans know just what they're in for -- even those who have no clue who any of these people on the "Supreme Court" are. Here are the "Ten Things President Bush Doesn't Want You to Know About Scalia and Thomas," courtesy of CAP. [Salon.com] 11:22:12 AM    comment []

Eszter on Privacy in the age of blogging. Jeffrey Rosen has a piece in yesterday’s NYTimes Magazine about the practice of blogging intricate details about one’s dating and sex life on one’s blog. (I was going to say “one’s private life”, but how private is it once it’s been blogged and read by hundreds?) As usual with journalistic pieces such as this one, it is hard to tell how widespread the phenomenon is, but it is out there to some extent and may be worth some thought. I certainly know that people in my social circles – friends, family members, colleagues – do wonder what I will and will not blog about from our interactions and sometimes even preface comments by saying “this is not for blogging”. I always reassure these people that I never blog information about other people without permission and in general rarely mention any names or other identifying information (except to give credit, but I check in such cases as well). However, from reading the article one would think my practices are more the exception than the rule.  . . . [Crooked Timber] (Includes further ruminations on the FERPA-related implications of having students blog publically as a class assignment. Taken up also in the comments thread.) These issues are among the things I explore in my Visions of Technology course. We watch Doug Block's movie, Home Page, and read Justin Hall, "Howdy, I'm Justin," and "Doug Block," Carl Steadman, "Carl," Julie Petersen, "Frequently Asked Questions about me and the movie." At that point, we've already done a fair bit about privacy, and somewhere in there we also read something about electronic panoptica and about computer intrusion. Important stuff, it seems to me. 7:33:44 AM    comment []

blogs will be to microsoft what the ipod is to macintosh. Thanks to Johnnie Moore for the gambit: Forget Lovemarks. If you want to see the future of marketing, just read Robert Scoble, and specifically his latest Open Letter to Bill Gates. (For those who've not come across him, Scoble is a blogger who went to work for Microsoft on the marketing side.) [PS:] Earlier post by me on the very same subject here. [PPS:] Why I prefer Windows to Macintosh (besides the obvious "It's REALLY good for traffic!"). [PPPS:] "Personality Feudalism". Why Apple is basically annoying. [gapingvoid] 7:28:33 AM    comment []

Chinese strikers use weblogs for their struggle. Labor unrest is increasingly hitting the economy as migrant workers would rather stay at home and work in the booming agriculture. Especially southern China has been hit by a shortage of labor that has made it easier for disgruntled workers to get into action. Ten days ago the 12, 000 workers of a Wal-Mart supplier, a sino-Japanese joint venture walked out. Interesting detail of the story, writen by Howard French of the New York Times, was that the workers, banned from organizing themselves, used SMS-messages to stay in touch with each other. Now also (...) Entry continued... [unmediated] 7:24:32 AM    comment []