Monday, June 06, 2005

Politics by Photoshop. When a New Jersey Republican needs a picture of adoring fans for his Web site, computer software and Dean supporters do the trick nicely. [Salon.com] 8:50:42 PM    comment []

The ourmedia fair use policy and explication. 8:42:46 PM    comment []

Dan with a Reminder: John Markoff Lecture on Wednesday. John "I already have a blog, it's www.nytimes.com" Markoff is giving a talk on Wednesday in Palo Alto about his important new book, What the Doormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry. I'm happy to be introducing him. [Dan Gillmor's blog] Which reminds me that I mentioned we were hosting John Markoff at the Well's Inkwell, too: A conversation with John Markoff Which of these things is not like the others: LSD, The Whole Earth Review, the free university, the Merry Pranksters, yoga, est, The Grateful Dead, and the personal computer? John Markoff argues they all belong. Why else did personal computing take off in countercultural "feed your head" California labs rather than in the more establishment-oriented labs of the east coast? "What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry" is another chapter in John's long history writing about computers and technology issues -- the last seventeen years at The New York Times. He is co-author of "Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier" and "Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw." Join John Markoff from the beginning of the conversation or catch up on the most recent posts. 8:39:07 PM    comment []

Judges toss out DUIs because breathalyzers' source code is secret. Via Boing Boing, we learn: "Florida judges are tossing out DUI cases when defendants ask to see the source code for the breathalyzers that busted them -- the manufacturers won't turn over the source, and since the machine's correct operation is critical to establishing the case against the DUIers, the case is dismissed when it can't be produced." All four of Seminole County's criminal judges have been using a standard that if a DUI defendant asks for a key piece of information about how the machine works - its software source code, for instance - and the state cannot provide it, the breath test is rejected, the Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday... Now if only they could find a way to apply this to voting machines. [Stay Free! Daily] Interesting commentary there already, too. 8:34:19 PM    comment []

Can we do without pragmatic encroachment. I just finished a draft of a very long paper on pragmatic encroachment in epistemology. Can we do without pragmatic encroachment? The idea behind the paper is that once we have a suitably pragmatic understanding of belief, we don’t need to also have a pragmatic understanding of justification in order to have a suitably pragmatic theory of justified belief. Along the way there’s stuff about the preface paradox, closure principles, principles of practical implication and much more. [Thoughts Arguments and Rants] 8:33:38 PM    comment []

Scott has a very fine post on Deep Throat and the evolution of anonymous sourcing in journalism, titled Anonymous bosh. 8:33:18 PM    comment []

How Apple will change everything about Podcasting, #4 -- They'll make it simple.. (Note: This is #4 in a series of posts I've made during the past few days regarding the impact -- positive and negative -- of iTunes embracing -- the iTunification -- of podcasting. Here is a link to a page displaying all of the posts, chronologically. Also, here is an RSS feed of posts in this series.) I had a very long post prepared on the point I'm about to argue. When I completed it, I thought, how ironic is it to spend so many words trying to explain how Apple can make podcasting -- everything about it -- simple. Forget hip. Forget micropayments. Forget marketing juggernaut. Just, simple. Simple, as in I don't have to set up any new software or comprehend what's taking place. Simple, as in I don't need to know what RSS is. Simple, as in I just have to click on something to subscribe. So, you can stop right there and not read anything else. All the words after this are several ways I'm guessing Apple will make podcasting simple.  . . . (Next up: What this means for all the other podcast ventures and open source projects and how Apple could screw up podcasting. And then, my final post: Synopsis, or here's the e-mail I've received with some great ideas.) Display all posts in this series on one page by clicking this link An RSS feed of posts in this series [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 7:27:15 AM    comment []

Four from Wired News: Radio Industry Hits Shuffle. IPod-style stations are entering markets and replacing DJs from coast to coast. A flailing industry hopes the format can turn the tide against mounting competition. By Randy Dotinga. Laptops for Kids With No Power. MIT's ambitious plan to supply cheap laptops to developing countries is well-intentioned, experts say, but basic challenges like lack of electricity and technical support will have to be ironed out. By Stephen Leahy. State Raises Stakes in Web Game. Legalize internet poker, entice the $2 billion-dollar online-poker industry to move to North Dakota and generate millions in new taxes. That's the proposal on the table by state lawmakers. By Jeff Howe from Wired magazine. A Tale of Two Hackers. Our reporter braves sweet, fizzy alcoholic drinks and leeches to get up close and personal with Kevin Mitnick and one of his lesser known accomplices in crime. Patick Gray reports from Sydey, Australia.   7:21:43 AM    comment []

Gaming @ Your Library Sessions Blogged!. Today's Tech Summits on gaming in libraries were fan-tast-ic! I couldn't have asked for better presenters, as expressed by the participants themselves who noted on the evaluations how enthusiastic and knowledgeable Eli and Erin were (are!). Everyone learned a lot, and the actual game play was a BIG hit. Several people told me that they hadn't expected to enjoy themselves so much, and that you truly don't understand gaming until you experience it yourself. You haven't lived until you've seen a roomful of librarians competing against each other in Mario Kart and DDR! In fact, several people stayed after the second session ended just to keep playing (and I think Dan B. probably stopped to purchase a PlayStation and DDR package on his way home!). We even had a few extra minutes to let some of our staff play, including our executive director, Alice Calabrese! I've already got two applications for our grant on my desk, and I suspect we'll get more than 16 libraries that want to participate based purely on the level of enthusiasm in each session. Our plan is to draw names out of a hat in order to be fair if that does indeed happen. I'll post the application to the MLS web site tomorrow for those MLS libraries that weren't able to attend. Eli is going to send me a copy of their presentation, which I'll also post to our site. Oh, and I'll have a copy of AADL's DVD to circulate to those libraries that would like to borrow it. So without further ado, here are my combined notes from the presentations. Unfortunately, they really don't give you the full flavor of Eli's and Erin's wit and wisdom, but they do illustrate just how great AADL's program is! (If you're reading this in your aggregator, you'll need to click through to the full post - sorry.) Sorry about the length of this post, but MT won't display the extended entry, so I'm forced to put it all in the body in order to get the text to display at all.  . . . [The Shifted Librarian] 7:15:56 AM    comment []

New Vaccines Prevent Ebola and Marburg in Monkeys. Two new vaccines were 100 percent effective in a study of 12 macaques being published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine. By DENISE GRADY. [NYT > International] 7:14:20 AM    comment []