Friday, August 05, 2005

C.I.A. Leak Case Recalls Texas Incident in '92 Race. Karl Rove was fired from the Texas campaign to re-elect the first President Bush on suspicions that Mr. Rove had leaked information to Robert D. Novak. By ELISABETH BUMILLER. [NYT > Washington] 10:54:02 PM    comment []

Scrabble Tourneys on Google Maps. Reader MT sent this in because he knows I'm a mashup nut. And this is a good one. Scrabble tournaments mapped on Google Maps using those little letter square things!... [ResearchBuzz] Scrabble vs. Google 10:53:52 PM    comment []

"Getting" Gamers. I just finished reading an-honest-to-god print book (Joystick Nation), and now I’ve finally started Got Game. From the introduction: “Video games have dramatically changed the way members of this generation see the business world, how they think about work and risk and success, and what they expect of themselves. These attitudes can be confusing to boomers-to anyone who doesn’t intuitively understand game culture. They can even be counterproductive, both for the organization and for gamers themselves. But the deep lessons this generation has learned in and around video games carry enormous value. If managed and reinforced correctly, they can deliver that value to individual managers, to work groups, and to entire companies.” (p.22) Last week I talked at length with a guy who is facing this issue head on. He’s a techie who loves his job fixing computers, a boomer, and now during this last year, the manager of high school and college students who manage the network at a school. He plays EverQuest and PlayStation 2 games with his 11–year old son so he’s familiar with gaming and the culture, but it’s been a frustrating year for him, even though he’s a very easy-going type of guy. As we talked, he told me how he just doesn’t understand these kids. To him, you work on projects, you complete them, and you do them well because otherwise people get fired. Since I was in the middle of reading the first book, I gave him “Got Game,” and he got through the first 100 pages before we went our separate ways and he had to return it to me. And you know what? Those 100 pages really helped him. During our final talk, he told me that at least now he understands why these kids think and act the way they do. It’s not that they don’t care or that they’re not doing their best; it’s that they’re gamers so they’re willing to experiment and try new things rather than speed forward on the “one, true” path. For them, failure is not to be avoided at all costs. Instead, it's a new starting point. Now that he understands all of this, he believes he can interact with and manage them more effectively. I’ll be interested to talk to him again next year to see how all of this is going, but I tell you this story because not only do you have to interact with these kids as patrons, but they’re going to be working for you – if they aren’t already – and in some cases, you’re going to be working for them. I’m barely into Beck’s book, but already I highly recommend it. [The Shifted Librarian] 10:52:44 PM    comment []

We'll Work Because We Have To. Members of the generation known for rock 'n' roll and antiwar protests will begin turning 60 in January, and the Fortune 2005 Retirement Guide details what they plan to do in the years ahead. By PAUL B. BROWN. Happy to Be Working and Ready to Spend Some Money. WHETHER they were withdrawing from one doomed corporate takeover or apologizing (with cash) for another, multinational companies spent the week closing the books on several ill-fated and ill-advised business decisions. By MARK A. STEIN. [NYT > Business] 10:39:36 PM    comment []

The reports roll in from DefCon . . . here are a couple: Hackers Give Back, by Patty Walsh, Las Vegas Weekly The rain had somewhat subsided as Deviant, M and I pulled into the parking lot of Sushi Factory at 21:00 hours. Indeed, we were somewhat tardy for the events that were about to unfold inside a small, local restaurant - for we were attending SushiCon - one of the unofficial events of DefCon, the world's largest underground hackers convention. Had I not known better, I may have fallen into the dark abyss of stereotypes and sensationalism that is so prevalent from the mainstream media and society in general. After all, I was surrounded by roughly 20 hackers in an unassuming location, with an abundance of raw fish and miso soup. The stakes were high, and the consequences could have been brutal. They could have hacked into my soul, into my cell phone, into my .... Unagi and California rolls! Yet, there is always more lurking beneath the surface, and the reality of DefCon 13 and hackers in general would drive that point home as I embarked on a weekend of dynamic proportions that would expand my horizons and leave me with more than I ever thought possible. For 13 years, DefCon has served as a gathering of computer hackers worldwide for a weekend of exchanging ideas, socializing, intellectual debate, partying and ruthless debauchery. All of these elements combined at the Alexis Villas resort and a myriad of activities that accompany it (lock-picking contest, beer cooling contest, QueerCon and Spot the Fed, to name a few) leave much for the mind to ponder. At any given moment, something completely fascinating or absolutely ridiculous is occurring. There are different parties going on at the pools of the resort, and speakers giving talks on many topics, including how to hack into Google, gender differences in hacking, legal issues in computer security, question-and-answer forum for "Meet the Fed," asymmetrical digital warfare and cartography and hacking. On Thursday, July 28, local hacker organization DC702 put on a fundraising event called the DC702 Summit at the Ice House in order to contribute to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and defending the digital rights of the public. According to Robert Imhoff-Dursham, member of DC702 and organizer of the Summit, "For DC702, the Summit was a serious role in DefCon and the positive things that we can do for the computer security industry and for digital rights and freedoms ... We wanted to get all these great security minds together ... for people to learn more about what they do," he said. The result was $4,200 raised that evening at the Ice House, including $2,200 in online contributions, $1,000 from a security network organization known as the Shmoo Group, and the rest made at the door. Another fundraising occasion was at DefCon called the Dunk Tank. Wall of Sheep -- I see stupid people, by Charlie Demerjian, The Inquirer. ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS of Defcon 13 is the Wall of Sheep. This large projection of stupid people is hard to miss if you are in the chill out room, and it is a lot of fun. What they do is post usernames and enough of a password for the terminally stupid to realise that they are serious, but not enough to give it all away. The sheer number of them at a place where people should know better is really frightening. The places where they log in to, companies that should know better but don't implement the most basic security measures, is more frightening. The WoS is projected on the wall, but the controlling laptop is more photogenic. Now, the last thing you want to see is your name or login up on the WoS, it is embarrassing to say the least. If you get your picture up on it, as a few special people did, you probably should pack up and go home early. . . . . . . . Now, I can sympathise a little with smaller network operator and home users not being 100% secure, but Cisco, Harvard and a F100 computer consulting firm? Come on people, you should fire your network staff and get someone marginally competent. Still, if people displayed more common sense than a rotting piece of roadkill, Defcon would not nearly be entertaining . . . . 4:46:46 PM    comment []

Recipe for DIY DNA Decoding Revealed. On Scientific American [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 6:25:18 AM    comment []

DIT knowledge source husbandry. I'm in a session for H20 Playlist at OSCON. Very interesting stuff. Make "playlists" of sources for topical syllabi. Kind of a del.icio.us for academic source materials. Pretty neat. It's a DIT thing: Do It Together, rather than Do It Yourself (DIY). Tags: DIT, playlist, oscon, syllabi. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 6:25:15 AM    comment []

First family of Windows Vista viruses unleashed. An Austrian hacker earned the dubious distinction of writing what are thought to be the first known viruses for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. Written in July, the viruses take advantage of a new command shell, code-named Monad, that is included in the Windows Vista beta code. The viruses were published last month in a virus-writing tutorial written for an underground hacker group calling itself the Ready Ranger Liberation Front, and take advantage of security vulnerabilities in the new command shell. Unlike the traditional Windows graphical user interface, which relies heavily on the mouse for navigation, command shells allow users to use powerful text-based commands, much like Windows' predecessor, DOS. The viruses were written by a hacker calling himself "Second Part To Hell," and published on July 21, just days after Monad was publicly released by Microsoft, according to Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer with Helsinki's F-Secure Corp. Second Part To Hell is the pseudonym of an Austrian-based hacker who also goes by the name Mario, Hyppönen said. Because of its sophistication, the new command shell offers new opportunities for hackers, Second Part To Hell wrote in the tutorial, a copy of which was obtained by the IDG News Service. "Monad will be like Linux's BASH (Bourne Again Shell) -- that means a great number of commands and functions," he wrote. "We will be able to make as huge and complex scripts as we do in Linux." [InfoWorld: Top News] Eight days total. F-Secure's named it "Danom." 6:19:53 AM    comment []

It Takes A Senator. Senator Rick Santorum, in his book It Takes a Family, talks about how he feels government has weakened the responsibility that families have in child rearing. With Brian, Santorum discusses the role of government, family and homosexuality. [WNYC New York Public Radio] 6:17:55 AM    comment []

Cell Phone Resource Site Shows Users Where and How to Get Best Reception. Cell phone customers have long been plagued with poor reception issues. Up until now, cell phone purchasers have been in the dark about reception. Wireless servers do not guarantee coverage and consumers had no reliable way to check. CellReception.com has come up with a simple solution. They call it the "Cell Phone Reception and Tower Search." By combining the FCC's database of registered towers with Google Maps, CellReception.com is able to provide a graphical display of towers nationwide. By giving users an easy and graphical way to access tower locations, they can make better choices of carriers who offer the best coverage in their area before buying. [via mocoblog] [unmediated] 6:17:26 AM    comment []

Phil G on the recent Presidential Intelligent Design flap: George W. Bush, Evolution, Intelligent Design, and our schools. The news today is full of reports that George W. Bush is quietly suggesting that our public schools teach some sort of creationism alongside evolution.  Journalists from big cities love writing about creationism and the hayseeds who believe in it because it reinforces their sense of superiority for having chosen to live in a $1 million two-bedroom apartment choked by smog and surrounded by gridlock.  One problem with these reports is that if one actually travels to small towns and rural areas across North America it is almost impossible to find people who espouse creationism.  On the contrary these areas are in my experience much more likely than cities to contain people who want to bend your ear about local geology, fossils, etc.  If you survey people coming out of a church and ask them "did God create the Earth" they might indeed say "yes" but then if you ask them how old those mountains in the distance are very few indeed would say "5000 years". It is unclear why the President of the U.S. saying something about education is news.  Public schools are run at the state or local level, though with an increasing level of federal interference.  And in any case the students don't seem to believe or remember much of what the teachers say.  A kid who is unfortunate enough to be stuck in public school for 12+ years has more serious problems than a teacher blathering on about "intelligent design" for a few hours out of those 12+ years. [Darwin was actually grossly wrong about the speed at which evolution occurs.  The Beak of the Finch is an excellent book about year-to-year natural selection and evolution among finches in the Galapagos.  The book also covers more rapid evolution in populations of guppies in aquariums with varying quantities of predators (guppies in a more dangerous environment evolve to be plainer in coloration; guppies in a safe environment evolve to be more attractive to the opposite sex) and, most terrifying, yet more rapid evolution of drug resistance in viruses.] [Philip Greenspun Weblog] 6:17:06 AM    comment []

Something bothering you, Bob?. CNN suspends Robert Novak for walking off the "Inside Politics" set just before he was to be asked about the Valerie Plame case. [Salon.com] 6:08:33 AM    comment []

Fascinating. Court Nominee Advised Group on Gay Rights. Judge John G. Roberts Jr. helped advocates for gay rights win a landmark 1996 ruling protecting homosexuals from discrimination. By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK. [NYT > Washington] 6:08:05 AM    comment []

Rehnquist Treated for Fever. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who has thyroid cancer, was treated at a hospital to try to determine the source of a fever. By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN. [NYT > Washington] 6:07:46 AM    comment []

Billboard lists hottest 'summer' songs. On CNN [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 5:57:05 AM    comment []

Offer by Europe Would Give Iran Nuclear Future. The proposal would allow Iran to acquire nuclear reactors and normalize ties with the West if it agrees to end nuclear activities. By STEVEN R. WEISMAN. [NYT > Washington] 5:54:57 AM    comment []

Novak Uses Expletive and Stalks Off Live CNN Program in a Huff. A spokeswoman for CNN released a statement saying that the network had asked Robert D. Novak "to take some time off." By JACQUES STEINBERG. [NYT > Washington] 5:54:16 AM    comment []

U2's City of Blinding Lights. Twelve thousand daisy-chained LEDs. Spycams controlled by a PlayStation. The Vertigo tour is a monster concert machine -- and the ultimate rock 'n' roll R&D lab. By William Gibson from Wired magazine. [Wired News] 5:53:53 AM    comment []

Measuring the Blogosphere. Think of the blogosphere as the global thought bubble of a single voluble species. [NYT > Opinion] 5:53:37 AM    comment []