Thursday, September 15, 2005

Iranian Leader Promises 'New Proposals' in Nuclear Talks. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran provided no details and insisted that Iran must continue to possess a nuclear energy capability. By STEVEN R. WEISMAN. [NYT > International] 5:31:16 PM    comment []

Rival coach 'turns over'. The women's basketball team is in for a big change this season. A new head coach has been hired and she looks forward to a great season. [The Journal] 5:30:52 PM    comment []

Around the Web. In honor of the Rolling Stones' latest romp across the world (and not the ridiculous "Desperate Housewives" soundtrack that the song appears on), here's Liz Phair covering the Stones' "Little Mother's Helper" from their classic, "Aftermath." (Via Stereogum) [Salon.com] 5:30:44 PM    comment []

India Balks at Confronting Iran, Straining Its Friendship With U.S.. The Bush administration is insisting that India join in the confrontation over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. By STEVEN R. WEISMAN. [NYT > International] 5:30:07 PM    comment []

Katrina: A Timeline by Citizen and Pro Journalists. With the help of a growing cast of citizen journalists, Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo is creating a Hurricane Katrina Timeline. (Instructions for contributing are at the bottom of the page.) While a good example of the possibilities, it's not the first thing of its kind. The Center for Cooperative Research's fantastic 9/11 timeline, for example, was a demonstration of how average folks can contribute to knowledge. This is one wave of the future, and a vital one. [Dan Gillmor's blog] 5:27:12 PM    comment []

The meaning of TiVo's DRM bug (Wendy Seltzer). Cory picked up on PVRblog's coverage of what was eventually determined to be a bug: Users found their TiVos unexpectedly expiring recorded shows. It might well have been a bug in this instance, but bugs like that don't just come from nowhere, with fully formed error messages alerting viewers that "Due to policy set by the copyright holder, 'Keep until I delete' is not permitted." Maybe it wasn't meant to show up here and now, on broadcast TV, but someplace in TiVo's corporate innards, someone decided that unrequested expiration was a feature. Nothing in copyright law mandates this "feature." To the contrary, once you have a lawful copy of a copyrighted work, the first sale doctrine says you have the choice whether to save, lend, or discard it, while Betamax says timeshifting creates a lawful copy. If not copyright law, then copyright-holder muscle probably sits behind TiVo's design. Copyright holders work with Macrovision to implement extra-copyright controls, then jointly lean on TiVo to respond to them. Together, they restrict user rights beyond copyright. The bug also illustrates the fallibility of proprietary technologies (particularly those with automatic update). "Update" doesn't always mean "improve" -- an update can take away functions you've come to enjoy, just because someone else objects. This misfeature of any DRM that implements "revocability" gives "planned obsolescence" a whole new meaning. Like Cory, I've gone the MythTV route instead. With hundreds of people hacking on its open-source code, MythTV updates really are improvements. Its features are truly features, like commercial skip, time-stretch, transcoding and transfer to other media, plus an open-format music server on the side, giving full access to all the rights copyright reserves to the public. Sorry TiVo, you've been out-evolved. [Copyfight] 5:26:55 PM    comment []

How to Code A Star Ratings System. kmodomedia shows how to code a star ratings system like one on the Netflix Web site. Very cool if you're into CSS and XHTML.... [Hacking NetFlix] 5:26:22 PM    comment []

Voicing Struggles. In this week's Underreported feature we keep our focus on Central Asia with an update from Uzbekistan. And George McGovern reflects on his 1972 grassroots presidential campaign against incumbent Richard Nixon. [WNYC New York Public Radio] 5:25:42 PM    comment []

Literacy of Cooperation Lecture Videos. The edited videos of the Literacy of Cooperation lecture series from Stanford are now available: Howard Rheingold and Andrea Saveri (48 MB);  Small version (24 MB) In this first lecture, Howard Rheingold places in historical context the emergence of increasingly powerful mechanisms for cooperation and Andrea Saveri outlines the project and where they intend it to go. Peter Kollock (137 MB);  Small version (62 MB) Peter Kollock lectures on strategies to avoid the social dilemma, covering the Tragedy of the Commons and Prisoner's Dilemma situations. Paul Hartzog (184 MB);  Small version (62 MB)  Paul Hartzog lectures on institutions for collective action and the different approaches to the social dilemma, covering the story from Garrett Hardin to Elinor Ostrom. Peter Corning (117 MB);  Small version (40 MB)   Peter Corning lectures on the role of synergies in natural selection and why Darwin didn't have a blind spot in understanding the value of cooperation. Jimmy Wales (201 MB);  Small version (69 MB) Jimmy Wales lectures on how cooperation works at Wikipedia. Steven Weber (157 MB);  Small version (53 MB) Steven Weber lectures on how open and closed systems together will shape the future of property and business. Ross Mayfield (71 MB);  Small version (24 MB)  Ross Mayfield lectures on emergent democracy, group forming networks, methods of pluralism, blogs, and wikis. Zack Rosen (64 MB);  Small version (22 MB)  Zack Rosen lectures on his project CivicSpace, formerly DeanSpace, and the future of emergent democracy. Bernardo Huberman (118 MB);  Small version (40 MB) Bernardo Huberman lectures on collective intelligence and cooperative problem solving through prediction markets. [Smart Mobs] 5:25:23 PM    comment []

From Benton Headlines: A STEP BACK FROM THE WEB [Commentary] "We are the Web," Walker wrote in a memo to her bosses when she rejoined the print edition of the Washington Post to launch this weekly column in 1998. "Almost anyone can plug into the Internet and transmit his or her message, making it a more participatory medium." People using the Web shape it in unpredictable ways, she wanted to spend as much time chronicling that participatory side. Seven years later, we are still transforming the Web every day. It is hard to stand back and perceive the collective impact that hundreds of millions of users are having, but for the next three months Walker is going to try, taking a temporary break from her column to work on a special project. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Leslie Walker walkerl @ washpost.com.] (requires registration) 12:52:53 PM    comment []

Hilarious New Yorker Cartoons. OK, my favorite New Yorker cartoon used to be the "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog" cartoon.  But I think this "I had my own blog for awhile, but I decided to go back to pointless, incessant barking" cartoon is even funnier.  Take a look. [iBeth] 7:43:53 AM    comment []

Some Indie Action for Your Selected Short Subjects. Described by the company as a "movie studio in the box for kids," Mattel's Vidster video camera comes with an easy-to-use collection of photo- and video-editing software. By ANDREW ZIPERN. [NYT > Technology] 7:43:44 AM    comment []