Thursday, January 19, 2006

Ah, (c)Brain, we knew you well. Is it still in the wild? Or have changes in media and OS taken away its ecosystem? 20th Anniversary of the Computer Virus. Today is the 20th Anniversary of the oldest computer virus known: the Brain virus. It was a boot sector virus, and spread via infected floppy disks. [Schneier on Security] 10:54:13 PM    comment []

Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment: Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing and Search Engine Watch have more on Google and COPA: it seems that several other search engines, including Yahoo and MSN, complied with the government's demand for log files. Only Google is putting up a fight. Xeni says: It seems apparent that Google objected to the request not on privacy grounds, but because the request was overly broad and burdensome. Privacy advocates I spoke to today, including attorney Sherwin Siy at EPIC, say while the DoJ's request would not identify individual users, the scope and nature of this request sets a troubling precedent. Today, they argue, only search strings and urls; tomorrow, perhaps, the IP addresses of all users who typed in "Osama Bin Laden." And, as Danny points out (bet you thought of this, too); Moreover, since the data is divorced from user info, you have no idea what searches are being done by children or not. In the end, you've asked for a lot of data that's not really going to help you estimate anything at all. 10:54:07 PM    comment []

Hillary Clinton Says White House Has Mishandled Iran [New York Times: International News] 10:54:04 PM    comment []

Feds demand user data from Google: Battelle's analysis. In light of today's SJ Merc report that the Department of Justice has demanded user search records from Google, this excerpt from John Battelle's The Search seems worth reading again: As we move our data to the servers at Amazon.com, Hotmail.com, Yahoo.com, and Gmail.com, we are making an implicit bargain, one that the public at large is either entirely content with, or, more likely, one that most have not taken much to heart. That bargain is this: we trust you to not do evil things with our information. We trust that you will keep it secure, free from unlaw- ful government or private search and seizure, and under our control at all times. We understand that you might use our data in aggregate to provide us better and more useful services, but we trust that you will not identify individuals personally through our data, nor use our personal data in a manner that would violate our own sense of privacy and freedom. That’s a pretty large helping of trust we’re asking companies to ladle onto their corporate plate. And I’m not sure either we or they are entirely sure what to do with the implications of such a transfer. Just thinking about these implications makes a reasonable person’s head hurt. Link Previously: DoJ demands user search records from Google [Boing Boing] 10:53:53 PM    comment []

In 'Design' vs. Darwinism, Darwin Wins Point in Rome. An article in the official Vatican newspaper called the recent court decision that intelligent design should not be taught as a scientific alternative to evolution "correct." By IAN FISHER and CORNELIA DEAN. [NYT > Education] 6:46:33 AM    comment []

In Threat to Internet's Clout, Some Are Starting Alternatives. The WSJ has a must read article on how countries - from Germany to China - and rival organizations, are building alternatives to the US developped Internet, fueld by anti-american feelings and commercial interests. "German computer engineers are building an alternative to the Internet to make a political statement. A Dutch company has built one to make money. China has created three suffixes in Chinese characters substituting for .com and the like, resulting in Web sites and email addresses inaccessible to users outside of China. The 22-nation Arab League has begun a similar system using Arabic suffixes. [Smart Mobs] 6:45:34 AM    comment []

NASA Stardust canister opens to reveal "wonderful samples". [Boing Boing] 6:44:58 AM    comment []

Federal Grants Bring Surveillance Cameras to Small Towns [Washington Post: Top News] 6:44:41 AM    comment []

Sex.com Sold For $14M. Xbiz reports that the infamous and controversial domain Sex.com has officially been sold to Boston-based Escom LLC for a reported $14 million. [Smart Mobs] 6:44:02 AM    comment []

Lou Reed takes his best shots. The rock legend discusses his digital photography and Warhol before suddenly asking, "If the sun was an oboe, what would you do?" [Salon] 6:43:36 AM    comment []

What Business are theaters in ?. With the release of Bubble on January 27th in theaters, on DVD and for 2 showings on HDNet Movies, there has been a ton of press and discussion about the future of the movie industry. THe most extreme has come from John Fithian, who wins the award for the best ever imitation of Jack Valenti’s famous comparison of the VCR to the Boston Strangler when he was quoted Business 2.0 as saying John Fithian, the head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, a trade group based in Washington, DC, called Iger’s suggestion this summer a “death threat” against his members. Fithian says that “if [release] windows were eliminated, what you would have would be fewer movies, fewer total dollars for the industry, and less choice for the consumer.” He thinks movies would become little more than commodities and that hundreds or thousands of theaters would close. But he wasnt done there, he said the same thing to USA Today It’s the biggest threat to the viability of the cinema industry today,” John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, said of the so-called “day and date” release strategy. How sad is it when the President of the National Assoc of Theater Owners doesnt think his members can create a better movie going experience than what we can see in our houses and apartments ? Guess what John, I can whip up a mean steak, but I still like to go to restaurants. Because I enjoy it. I enjoy getting out of the house with family, friends, who ever.  . . . As for Mr Fithian’s Valentiesque fears … I can and will offer my observations of the problems first run multiplexes have. First of all, I dont think they know what business they are in any longer. It appears they believe they are in the business of showing the movies Hollywood gives them and praying that Hollywood makes good movies and spends enough money to drive people through the doors so they make some money on the boxoffice and  concessions. They arent. But thats not the biggest of their problems. Their biggest problem is that they  dont care who their customer is, as long as a lot of people come.  Which in turn makes it almost impossible to determine what business they are in.  . . . People of different demographics have different expectations of the movie going experience. Trying to mix them only ends up making both mad.   It probably wouldnt be a bad idea for the multiplexs to tailor the experience to the appropriate audience. Its also probably a good time to take steps to be paid for the role you play in promoting the sale of DVDs and TV.  . . . . [Blog Maverick] 6:43:24 AM    comment []