Monday, October 17, 2005

Magazine Covers. ASME’s TOP 40 MAGAZINE COVERS OF THE PAST 40 YEARS Here are a few that struck a chord with me: #4. New Yorker 1976 - Surely the most imitated of any magazine cover ever. #7. National Lampoon, 1973 - The following month they carried a brief note, “Not enough of you bought the magazine, so we shot the [...] [The Politburo Diktat] http://www.magazine.org/editorial/13730.cfm 9:49:23 PM    comment []

Wes: For years there have been conspiracy theories about watermarks in color printer output; now a team of EFF hackers have decoded the watermarking scheme used by the Xerox DocuColor color laser printer. 9:49:15 PM    comment []

A welcome surprise: war waning globally. The study found 25 civil conflicts last year - the lowest number since 1976. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 6:34:06 PM    comment []

What's Old Is New. Listen to two recordings by Steve Reich Reichs most recent work, You Are (Variations) and a 1977 live performance from New Yorks New Music venue The Kitchen. [WNYC New York Public Radio] 6:33:57 PM    comment []

Redefining "Copy" in the Digital Era (Donna Wentworth). William Patry, in a post tracking the evolution of the legal definition of the word "copy": "We may be at the end of the road conceptually and semantically when 'copy' can be impressed into banning all sampling and imposing liability for buffering and caching no matter the end purpose." [Copyfight] 6:33:48 PM    comment []

Fellowship Opportunities for Humanities Scholars Affected by the Hurricanes. Thanks to Terry Pinkard for passing this along: The Alice Berline Kaplan Center for the Humanities at Northwestern University invites humanities scholars displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to apply for short-term fellowships, effective immediately. We are located in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago and can offer an office with a computer, visiting scholar status, and possibly a housing stipend.  Please send a letter of application and CV (or short vita with list of significant publications) to Director Robert Gooding-Williams at rjgoodingwil at northwestern-dot-edu or 2010 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, Il 60208-2225 or fax 847-467-3978.  Questions may be addressed to Associate Director Elzbieta Foeller-Pituch at efp at northwestern-dot-edu or 847-467-3970. [Leiter Reports: Guest Blogger William Edmundson Oct. 17-23] 6:32:46 PM    comment []

Costumes of choice for 2005's trick-or-treaters. What's hot for kids and adults this year. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 6:31:55 PM    comment []

Dave: I need to do a podcast to explain in more detail how Google has spent the last five years walking out on a very long plank, one that has certainly generated many billions of 20th Century style dollars, by monetizing eyeballs, and how precarious their position is. An empire based on the sanctity of the link. Intrusive ads, the ones that Google sells, are so so tired. Feeds containing commercial information people want, are wired. [Scripting News] 6:31:41 PM    comment []

Also from BNA News: ND REGULATORS HOLD OFF ON ENFORCING NET AUCTION REGS North Dakota regulators say they will not chase unlicensed "auctioneers" who sell goods over eBay until Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem concludes whether they are covered by state law. State law that regulates traditional auctioneers may also affect North Dakotans who are paid for using eBay to sell merchandise for others. 'DVD-JON' PROFILED BY WSJ The WSJ profiled Jon Lech Johansen, better known as DVD Jon. Johansen is targeting Apple Computer Inc., repeatedly hacking the software that runs its popular, Internet-based iTunes music store to remove restrictions on how many times purchased songs can be copied or on which devices they can be played. 2:54:42 PM    comment []

Impact of bird fraud unclear: Meinertzhagen's decades-long fraud may be more far-reaching, but ornithologists have yet to understand its full impact on the field. By Graciela Flores, in The Scientist. An extensive analysis of the British ornithologist Richard Meinertzhagen's bird collection at the Natural History Museum in Tring, UK, has revealed that a fraud involving theft and fabrication, uncovered over a decade ago, is more far reaching than was previously suspected. Still, ornithologists remain somewhat unclear how much impact the ever-growing fraud could have on the field. "As it turns out, Meinertzhagen had stolen the best specimens of other people's collections and then proceeded to fabricate data to go with them," Alan Knox, of the Historic Collections at the University of Aberdeen, King's College, who first uncovered the fraud in 1993, told The Scientist. The new report, presented at the 123rd meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union last August, has not yet been published, but it is already starting to reveal the extent of the deceit, said co-author Pamela Rasmussen of the Michigan State University Museum and Department of Zoology. "We have listed 23 ornithological books and articles on which we know Meinertzhagen's South Asian bird records impact negatively, and this is a gross underestimate," she said. . . . In the early 1990s, Knox had to remove a number of subspecies from the British List--a comprehensive record of bird species found in Great Britain that is widely used by bodies enforcing wildlife legislation. The subspecies were there just based on specimens that Meinertzhagen claimed he had collected, and showed several inconsistencies. . . . Another difficulty in assessing the impact of the fraud is that few professional ornithologists currently work on Asian birds. "Many more researchers would be affected by Meinertzhagen's records from Africa and Europe, which haven't yet been studied," said Rasmussen. The fraud is likely to affect a broad range of bird researchers and amateur ornithologists, according to Rasmussen. "Many publications that have Meinertzhagen's records are written by non-professional or paraprofessional ornithologists, but are utilized in many scientific and conservation respects," said Rasmussen. "Because our analysis has not yet been published, most ornithologists will not have a clear idea of just how their work has been impacted. We hope to change that when we publish our paper." 12:54:24 PM    comment []

FBI puts stop to spam king, by Joel Kurth and David Shepardson, The Detroit News. 10:54:04 AM    comment []

Lock-picking club feels responsibility is key, by Roman Starsky, UTD Mercury. "I had convinced myself there was no way the university would let me have the club. I was prepared to fight for it, but when the time came and they told me it was approved, I was very excited," Farre said. Farre created an outline of club activities and set new member dues, which cover a personal lock-picking kit, at $20. . . . "I think that having the Lock Picking Club on campus will get people involved who aren't normally involved in other activities. It also gives people a chance to learn an extremely important skill and educates people so they aren't ignorant about their surroundings," Farre said. Despite Farre's enthusiasm, several Waterview Park residents have complained about the potential privacy risks associated with having an organized lock-picking group. "While I can see how the club may be a good thing, I can definitely see how this can be a security risk too," psychology freshman Mayra Artega said. Farre argues that only irresponsible lock pickers present a danger to residents' privacy. According to Farre, lock picking should be allowed if jujitsu, which teaches deadly combat techniques, is permissible. . . . Eventually, Farre said he hopes the Lock Picking Club will grow enough to offer services to UTD. original hyperlink 9:53:59 AM    comment []

BNA News reports: ESTONIANS CAST VOTES IN WORLD'S FIRST NATIONAL NET ELECTION Last week, Estonia became the first country in the world to hold an election allowing voters nationwide to cast ballots over the Internet. Election officials in the country of 1.4 million said they had received no reports of flaws in the online voting system or hacking attempts. 8:53:52 AM    comment []

Incredulous ranking: 'Adbots' love Princeton, by George Spohr, Zwire. In its most recent "Security Update" report, Symantec - a provider of anti-virus software - lists Princeton as the hemisphere's most "adbot"-ridden city. The company said it traced 17 percent of adbot attacks in the Americas to computers in the Princetons. That number is so high, it makes the second- and third-place cities in North and South America - New York and Sao Paulo, Brazil - look like also-rans. Both cities played host to 3 percent of adbot attacks in the Americas, Symantec said. When all continents are taken into consideration, Princeton is the second-most adbot-ridden city, with 7 percent of all adbot attacks being traced here. Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, topped the list at 8 percent. New York was in 12th place, credited with just 1 percent of the world's attacks. . . . "As Princeton University is located there, Symantec believes that this may be related to the beginning of a new school year," the company said in explaining Princeton's rank. But that explanation - indeed, the very findings themselves - are baffling, said Anthony Scaturro, Princeton University's IT security officer. "The report stated that the city of Princeton has the second-largest bot population - 7 percent of the world's bots, to be exact," Mr. Scaturro said. "All of New York City, with its 8 million-plus population, paled at a mere 1 percent. Clearly, with results such as these, the credibility of the Symantec report is questionable." The report's methodology also leaves much to be desired, he said. Symantec traces the origin of adbots by examining the bits of identifying data that attach themselves to whatever kind of file the bots produce - an e-mail message, a Web page or malicious piece of software. When you receive an e-mail, for example, a quick check of the message's "header" can tell you the general area from which the e-mail was sent. "In today's modern attacks, the source of many attacks is forged," Mr. Scaturro explained. "So if the hacker programmed in the address of a Princeton computer in the bot program, when it spreads to a million computers and they start sending out their payload, it will appear that all of the attacking computers are from Princeton, even though 50 are in Tokyo, 100 are in Los Angeles, three are in Vermont, et cetera." 8:53:47 AM    comment []