Monday, September 19, 2005

Hoder on VOA TV. I was in Washington D.C. last week to appear on a live TV show in Persian section of Voice of America. The show, hosted by Ahmad Baharloo, is almost the oldest TV show beamed to Iran via satellite since 8,9 years ago. It's also extremely popular. I talked about Internet censorship in Iran, freedom of speech in the US, presidential candidates' use of the Internet in recent elections in Iran. I also answered phone calls from viewers and showed some of the videos I'd taken during my trip to Tehran, including short interviews with some of the bloggers and technicians... [Editor: Myself (English)] 10:47:15 PM    comment []

Useit.Com: Forms vs. Applications. Most big companies, however, have a legacy of paper forms. As a result, their intranets are littered with online forms that attempt to meet needs that are often better served by real applications with a real dialogue flow and more of a full-fledged GUI. [Tomalak's Realm] 10:47:10 PM    comment []

Bad news at the OMB. A White House official is arrested for lying to investigators. [Salon.com] 10:45:26 PM    comment []

Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore. Could cursing, a universal form of expression, be a peephole into the architecture of the brain? By NATALIE ANGIER. [NYT > Science] 10:44:06 PM    comment []

A Diebold Insider Speaks. Yes, it's sensationalist. But there's some good information here. [Schneier on Security] 3:07:08 PM    comment []

It Isn't Easy Being a Genius. Some advice for the new recipients of the MacAthur Foundation's so-called genius awards. By JIM COLLINS. [NYT > Opinion] 3:05:11 PM    comment []

Mobile phone subscribers pass 2 billion. News reports "the number of mobile phone subscribers in the world has surpassed the 2 billion."The bulk of the new growth now is coming from large, less well-developed markets such as China, India, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa," said Wireless Intelligence, an information service set up by industry body GSM Association and consulting firm Ovum. Nokia last month said it expected the 2 billion mark to be reached in the final quarter of the year and 3 billion to be reached by 2010. "The total number of mobile connections is now equivalent to nearly a third of the estimated world population of 6.5 billion," Martin Garner, director at Wireless Intelligence, said in a statement". Global mobiles top 2bn [Smart Mobs] 2:56:31 PM    comment []

U.S. and Allies Press U.N. Nuclear Agency to Criticize Iran. The United States and its allies said that they would push for a resolution critical of Iran from the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency. By JOEL BRINKLEY. [NYT > International] 2:55:49 PM    comment []

Green Marketing: Lessons from the Leaders. Joel Makower is a widely respected writer and consultant on issues of sustainable business, clean technology and green markets. His essays on environmental business and technology are a regular feature of our Sustainability Sundays. I’ve been tracking the opinion polls on green marketing for nearly two decades now, and I’ll admit to several Groundhog Day moments: the same polls revealing pretty much the same optimistic data over and over and over.  . . . But I’m more aligned with U.K. green-marketing strategist Wendy Gordon, who refers to the “30:3 ratio”: As Gordon, who is the author of a 2002 booklet, Brand Green: Mainstream or Forever Niche?, put it in a recent article: "Thirty percent of people claim to be concerned about the environmental and ethical integrity of products and services they purchase and yet only three percent translate this attitude into behaviour.”  . . . So, what does it take? There are success stories out there. Below are three snapshots of companies that have made green marketing work over the years, followed by some brief takeaways.  . . . Seventeen Takeways How did these leaders do it? Here are key takeaways: Make environmental messages consistent with the company’s existing voice in the marketplace. Empower consumers to get involved to make a difference. Enlist cultural icons to tell the story. Show that environmental initiatives lead to better-quality products. Be seen as a serious thought leader in the scientific and technology communities. Be ready to experiment publicly, even if it doesn’t always lead to success. Price environmentally preferable products comparable to conventional ones. Link environmental innovations to other benefits, like quality and durability. Consider branding green product lines with names that promote non-environmental benefits. Position individual environmental initiatives as examples of your larger sustainability commitment. Thank customers for making good, green choices, and tell them how they are making a difference. Seek recognition from peers and activist groups and challenge competitors to join in. Whenever possible, emphasize the health connection to sustainability initiatives. Green products shouldn’t be any different from “regular” ones -- in branding, price, use, or performance. Seed innovative new products among celebrities -- actors, musicians, athletes, and other trendsetters -- to give them a “cool” factor. Acknowledge imperfections and talk openly about ambitions and goals. Emphasize the cool technology aspect of environmental innovations whenever possible. (Posted by WorldChanging Team in Sustainability Sundays at 01:12 PM) [WorldChanging: Another World Is Here] 2:55:24 PM    comment []

Cryptology officers renamed, by Andrew Scutro, Navy Times. Naval "cryptology officers" will henceforth be "information warfare officers," to reflect the increased skill now required and the change in role from monitoring radio traffic and breaking codes to more modern uses and methods. 9:54:18 AM    comment []

Open access to research. "The UK is losing out on its investment in scientific research to the tune of £1.5bn every year, according to advocates of open access publishing",The Register reports."Professor Stevan Harnad from the University of Southampton argues that because of the tradition of locking the results of publicly funded research away in research journals, the scientific community is not as free to build on and develop ideas as it should be.He calculates that if all published work was self-archived (i.e. made available online, after publication in a journal), the research impact would be the equivalent of a further £1.5bn investment in UK science, every year".The paper here Harnad, S. (2005) Maximising the Return on UK's Public Investment in Research. Open access to research worth £1.5bn a year [Smart Mobs] 7:54:08 AM    comment []

Iran's President Does What U.S. Diplomacy Could Not [Washington Post: Top News] 7:52:49 AM    comment []

revisiting linking rights. I have discovered a little contradiction within myself. On the one hand, I am a zealous believer in the right to link. Links have been and remain the lifeblood of the web. The anti-linking policies which seemed fashionable a few... [explodedlibrary.info] 7:51:19 AM    comment []

A Photographer Gets His 15 Minutes as the President Requests a Quick Break. Rick Wilking, a photographer for the Reuters news service, may soon be best known for a picture he took showing President Bush passing a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice By JULIE BOSMAN. [NYT > Business] 7:51:00 AM    comment []

FilmLoop is "free software that gives you the power to create new loops or join existing ones. Loops are strings of images that move across your desktop." [Scripting News] 7:48:46 AM    comment []

My IPod for a Random Playlist. For years, he took comically extreme measures to correct flaws he heard in playlist randomizers. But turns out, expectations are the problem, not the algorithms. Commentary by Dan Goodin. [Wired News] 7:48:42 AM    comment []