Thursday, August 18, 2005

Back to school time . . . 8:42:30 AM    comment []

Zotob and Variants. I've been reading the massive press coverage about Zotob (technical details are here, here, and here), and can't figure out what the big deal is about. Yes, it propagates in Windows 2000 without user intervention, which is always nastier. It uses a Microsoft plug-and-play vulnerability, which is somewhat interesting. But the only reason I can think of that CNN did rolling coverage on it is that CNN was hit by it. [Schneier on Security] 8:40:23 AM    comment []

Jude the not so obscure. What Jude Law's exposed manhood can teach us about straight chicks, porn, and why size really, really doesn't matter. [Salon.com] 8:40:02 AM    comment []

Adaptive Path: Persona Non Grata. Done well, this is exactly what personas do. The problem is, most teams build personas from the wrong kind of user information, or worse, base them on assumptions. It's no surprise that a Web search for personas brings up an amazing variety of persona sets, and most of them are terrible. [Tomalak's Realm] 7:26:51 AM    comment []

Sims and Philosophy. To my knowledge, my paper Are You a Sim was the first paper in an academic philosophy journal to cite a computer game. So you'd think that game would develop a healthy respect for philosophy. Sadly, no, though they seem to have a well developed disrespect. Via David Chess, here are the list of courses in the philosophy major for the Sims 2: University expansion. What is the Meaning of This?! The Refrigerator Light: Proof vs. Faith Old Dead Guys who Thought Stuff Optimists and Other Idiots Philosophy's Place in the Neighborhood: Anywhere? Existentialism: Depressing Yourself on Purpose Who Controls the Pie Menu and Why? Senior Project: Preparing For The Food Industry And the preferred career paths for philosophy majors Slacker Culinary Paranormal Those with better knowledge of my work habits, cooking skills and connection to entities without good scientific explanation (Red Sox, Aust cricket team etc) can say which I've ended up in. [Thoughts Arguments and Rants] 7:26:29 AM    comment []

Using a false net identity. "Seoul District Prosecutors have indicted a man for posting indecent writings on the Internet using another person's identity",Asia Media reports."The accused is charged with libel and breaching laws that protect communications use and private information".Further,"an official at the prosecution said,"Internet users are increasingly getting access to websites and using nicknames to post obscene and dirty entries.We indicted Sohn to set a strict example regarding such acts." KOREA: Man charged with libel,using false Net identity [Smart Mobs] 7:16:24 AM    comment []

Robin on: What Do Women (Drivers) Want?. My daughter has been interested in cars for a long time. She was eager to drive and learned at 15; has been designing cars in clay for years, took automotive class at school, can name every make and model as cars whiz by on the highway. Boys are impressed. I'm impressed. I'm curious to see what kind of car design she might come up with if she gets into the field. If they give a woman a chance to design a car. Maybe she should go work for Volvo, which has tiptoed into that talent pool with the Your Concept Car, a car created by a design team of women. "When you meet the expectations of women, you exceed the expectations of men." That apparently was the declaration from a women's marketing expert at Volvo, Marti Barletta, that inspired the effort. So what do women expect from a car? What do they want that they don't see now in the showrooms? The Volvo team did its homework and found in surveying women that they wanted a car that: has plenty of storage is easy to park has good visibility is easy to get in and out of can be personalized requires minimal maintenance Sounds great to me. So they designed to those specifications. See what they came up with here. Note that the top request was PLENTY OF STORAGE and that the final design included "a deep storage well between the front seats." So will we ever see our car on the road and our purses neatly and handily stowed? Not anytime soon. This was just a flight-of-fancy exercise. But you know what? Women purchase 65 percent of all new cars and 55 percent of all used cars in the U.S. Let's demand the kind of car we really want. And let's make them hire our daughters to design them. A majority-female car design team shouldn't be an anomaly. It just might be good business. By the way, I'm shopping for a new car, as I've mentioned in previous posts. Out with the Mommy-taxi station wagon, in with the mid-life red sports car. What shall I get? Suggestions please. [Girl in the Locker Room!] 7:15:49 AM    comment []

N.C.A.A. Buys N.I.T. for $56.5 Million. The Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association, which owns the N.I.T., had accused the N.C.A.A. of trying to kill its tournaments. By FRANK LITSKY. [NYT > Sports] 7:14:28 AM    comment []

How do we hear music?. "Mary Farbood,a Ph.D. student at the MIT Media Lab,and Josh McDermott,a Ph.D. student in MIT's Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department,have been at work for the past year on a study designed to measure the degree to which perceptions of music vary from culture to culture,"MIT news reports."To do this they created a psychology experiment designed to measure how people from different cultures hear music". Music Universals Study [Smart Mobs] 7:14:24 AM    comment []

Archives Investigates Loss of Roberts File. The National Archives started a formal investigation into the loss of a file of Judge John G. Roberts Jr.'s papers on affirmative action. By THE NEW YORK TIMES. [NYT > Washington] 7:14:18 AM    comment []

Furrier Mice Offer Discovery on Active Adult Stem Cells. Researchers have discovered that an enzyme known to serve as a last-ditch defense against cancer also activates adult stem cells. By NICHOLAS WADE. [NYT > Technology] 7:13:16 AM    comment []

Truly amazing. I mentioned the new A9 maps the other day, but now that I've played with it some, I'm in awe. If you're looking for an address in a city where they have added the "block view" feature, how it works seems magical. [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 7:13:01 AM    comment []

Fetal Skin Cells Found to Be a Promising Treatment for Burns. Swiss scientists discovered that panels of artificial fetal skin seemed to confer restorative power to damaged tissue. By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL. [NYT > Science] 7:09:22 AM    comment []

It's A-level results day. I've got a great sugges... It's A-level results day. I've got a great suggestion for how the cover the story. Let's go to a nice middle class school and film pretty blonde teenage girls opening their envelopes, then screaming and hugging each other. What do you mean, someone's already thought of that before? I thought it was an original idea. [BEYOND NORTHERN IRAQ: mail2bni@yahoo.co.uk] 7:09:15 AM    comment []

A Good Report on AIDS, and Some Credit the Web. Health officials have been scrambling to explain a significant decline in new H.I.V. infections among gay men in San Francisco. By DEAN E. MURPHY. [NYT > Technology] 7:08:41 AM    comment []

Archie v. the Veronicas. On E! Online [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 7:08:30 AM    comment []

Artificial Intelligence. A few words on Valerie Plame, in no particular order. By MIKE MORTON and SABRA MORTON. [NYT > Opinion] Words like: Orwellian vise. 7:08:21 AM    comment []