Friday, June 09, 2006

What’s Going on in Iran?. In from the Cold notices Azeri TV reports anti-government demonstrations in Iran while Western media have left off covering internal Iranian news. "Admittedly, Baku TV isn’t the most accurate or reliable of sources, but at least they’re covering the story". [Pajamas Media] 7:42:35 PM    comment []

Tour of unmanned Predator assassination-plane (CNN .... Tour of unmanned Predator assassination-plane (CNN w/pic via digg) [robot wisdom weblog] 7:42:11 PM    comment []

Jack PC. Hey, let's get a bunch of these for the ZML: Jack PC from Jade Integration - a computer in your wall! The Jack PC is a revolutionary new 'thin client' computer made by Chip PC Technologies. Thin clients are effectively desktop computers designed to connect to a 'terminal server' or Citrix based environment where processing is handled by servers instead of PCs. Thin clients have been getting smaller and smaller over the years however this is the world's first Windows-based thin client small enough to fit in a network wall port. The benefits to business are massive since there's no longer a need for desktop PCs at all - your monitor, keyboard and mouse just plug into the wall! via adlab [unmediated] 7:42:06 PM    comment []

MPAA: The Grateful Dead's Success Was An Abomination Against Nature. One of the more annoying things we've found when discussing how the entertainment industry needs to adapt and change and embrace new technologies in place of their old business model, is the repeated claim that it's impossible to make money if the content is given away for free. Impossible is a pretty absolute statement -- and all you need is one example to disprove it. However, as we've shown, there are many, many examples of entertainers who have learned how to make more money out of giving away their content -- which seems to disprove the whole "impossible" bit. However, the industry folks don't seem to know how to respond to that, so they just keep saying it's impossible. Witness this bizarre exchange between John Perry Barlow and the MPAA's Dan Glickman debating the future of the entertainment industry. Barlow notes that he made an awful lot of money as a songwriter for the Grateful Dead, which encouraged its fans to make tapes of its shows for free. Glickman immediately responds by saying: "It is ridiculous to believe that you can give product away for free and be more successful. I mean it defies the laws of nature." The problem, as always, is that Glickman has incorrectly defined his market -- which is a scary thought if he's supposed to be the leading spokesperson for that industry. He thinks they're in the business of selling content. That's not so. It's too narrowly defined. The entertainment business is in the business of entertaining -- and that can include many things that still involve giving content away for free for promotional value. We've discussed plenty of examples in the recording industry -- and Barlow's success helps prove that. In Glickman's own movie industry the examples are even more obvious. They should be selling the experience of seeing a movie, not just the content. However, when Glickman says things like the idea that giving away things for free is against "the laws of human nature," we wonder if this means he's never received anything for free in his life. Does he turn down the free soda offered with the slice of pizza in the corner shop? Free dessert with dinner? Why that's just crazy talk! Those restaurants must be run by anti-capitalist extremists. There actions in giving away free food are against the laws of nature, and they must be on their way out of business. [unmediated] 7:40:26 PM    comment []

Rational (cocktail) synthesis, in need of empirical data.. Ah, the power of the internets! Without them, how would I ever have discovered The Mixilator? The Mixilator is hosted by The Internet Cocktail Database. It presents you with a form asking you to specify your cocktail variety, hour, strength, level of complexity, and special characteristics. It then returns with a recipe for a cocktail. But, the recipe that is returned to you is not a pre-existing coctail from the CocktailDB. Oh no, it is much more wonderful than that! The Mixilator randomly generates your cocktail recipe using an algorithm based on the theories set out by David Embury in his 1948 book The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. We are indeed living in a new age of wonders! But we who care about science are not satisfied with the algorithmic implementation of a theory. We are the reality-based community. We seek empirical data! Read the rest of this post... [Adventures in Ethics and Science] 7:39:48 PM    comment []

Grow Your Own Armchair. The Terra Grass Armchair Kit brings new meaning to the idea of "lawn furniture." Plus: The Spy Video Car offers clandestine fun. In Gear Factor. [Wired News: Top Stories] 7:39:19 PM    comment []

iPods knock over beer mugs, by Mike Snider, USA Today, reports on a major survey of college students. • iPods were the No. 1 "in" thing on campuses; 73% of students mentioned it. iPods were even more popular with Hispanic students (77%) and women (76%). • Drinking beer tied with the college networking site Facebook.com (71%). • Nos. 4 to 10 were drinking other alcohol (67%), text messaging (66%), downloading music (66%), going to clubs (65%), instant messaging (63%), working out (62%) and coffee (60%). Facebook.com wasn't even an option on the previous version of the survey. 2:42:42 PM    comment []

The Great No-ID Airport Challenge. In which millionaire privacy activist John Gilmore challenges a DHS advisor to attempt a cross-country plane ride without showing ID. Wired News referees the gentlemen's wager. Ryan Singel reports from San Francisco. [Wired News: Top Stories] 8:31:08 AM    comment []

Privacy as Contextual Integrity. Interesting law review article bu Helen Nissenbaum: Abstract: The practices of public surveillance, which include the monitoring of individuals in public through a variety of media (e.g., video, data, online), are among the least understood and controversial challenges to privacy in an age of information technologies. The fragmentary nature of privacy policy in the United States reflects not only the oppositional pulls of diverse vested interests, but also the ambivalence of unsettled intuitions on mundane phenomena such as shopper cards, closed-circuit television, and biometrics. This Article, which extends earlier work on the problem of privacy in public, explains why some of the prominent theoretical approaches to privacy, which were developed over time to meet traditional privacy challenges, yield unsatisfactory conclusions in the case of public surveillance. It posits a new construct, 'contextual integrity' as an alternative benchmark for privacy, to capture the nature of challenges posed by information technologies. Contextual integrity ties adequate protection for privacy to norms of specific contexts, demanding that information gathering and dissemination be appropriate to that context and obey the governing norms of distribution within it. Building on the idea of 'spheres of justice' developed by political philosopher Michael Walzer, this Article argues that public surveillance violates a right to privacy because it violates contextual integrity; as such, it constitutes injustice and even tyranny. [Schneier on Security] 8:31:03 AM    comment []

Failed to mention that Rex is a Mavs fan, too, now. Wow. The Dallas Mavericks have won 100% of the games since I've become a fan. And the owner of the team live blogged it. (Which is displaying an amazing degree of multi-medianess as he was also getting plenty of air time during the game coverage, as well.) Strangely, "sports writer" Dave Barry is not live blogging, however. (Background: here and here.) Technorati Tags: mavs [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] I'm really a Wizards fan, but I've watched the way this team has been built and admired their play for years and years now. It's great to see them having success, and I'm rooting for 'em. Maybe in a couple of years, Mavs vs. Wiz in the Finals? That'd be nice. 8:20:37 AM    comment []