Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Random Number Generators. NIST has just published "Recommendation for Random Number Generation Using Deterministic Random Bit Generators." [Schneier on Security] 8:59:35 PM    comment []

TV teen sex orgy complaints came from people who never saw the show. Mark Frauenfelder: The FCC fined CBS $3 million for the teen sex orgy scene in Without a Trace. (View it, if you dare, here). Now CBS is saying the fine is invalid because the people who complained didn't even know what they were complaining about. They were just robotically following the orders of their cult leaders at the PTC and the American Family Association  CBS says that 100% of the 4,211 complaints filed with the feds about this episode of "Without A Trace" came from web-based e-mail form letters originating from 2 right-wing christian groups (the PTC and the American Family Association). Only two complainers claimed to have seen the show, but made an inaccurate reference to another scene, thus blowing their cover. But the brunt of the issue lies with a technicality in the indecency complaint process: the FCC can only consider complaints from viewers in the station's broadcast area. Therefore, CBS alleges, the PTC and AFA-initiated complaints against "Without A Trace" are invalid. Link [Boing Boing] 8:57:33 PM    comment []

Canada and Vietnam. It appears Coulter's knowledge of evolution (and the certainty with which she spouts) is on a par with her knowledge of the Vietnam War. [Stranger Fruit] 8:56:54 PM    comment []

Scott (B, not R) comments on a post by Anil Dash, titled A Malcom and a Martin and addresses the question whether radical positions are necessary for institutions to change meaningfully: He suggests that change happens when there are two distinct forces at work on the same position. One radical (Malcolm X) and one rational (Martin Luther King. Jr). I’m sure there are nuances to the history of the civil rights movement, but there is a familiar pattern. The radical position gets attention and riles up those who disagree, and space is created for a moderate position to gain ground by being more paletable than the radical. My position is that you need attention to have influence, and radicals can bring attention to an issue that is being ignored. But there are other ways to get attention. You can earn it from people who learn to respect you for intelligent work you do, problems you’ve solved, or smart things you say. In my experience real change in organizations happens quietly, in small meetings with a handful of people - The drama of movements, big speaches, and flaming e-mails is to get enough influence to earn a seat in those small meetings. Or to have the ear of someone else that’s there to represent you, or give you the scoop on what’s happening next, before the whole organization knows. So I don’t think you need radicals for change - They can help by adding leverage to a position, surface a point of view that’s gone unheard, or put momentum behind an idea that is being ignored, but often there are other ways to achieve those things without taking radical positions or actions. 7:41:01 AM    comment []

So, last night's NBA Finals game would have been the back breaker, surely, had it come out just a bit differently. That leaves two games to play in Miami, and Dallas ought still to be optimistic. Even with a poor half from Nowitzki, Dallas coulda (woulda, shoulda) won the game. The shooting numbers are remarkably even, but the visitors were killed on the boards. Maybe it wasn't the heat, but the humidity? Could that be it, Mark? Game Four, tomorrow. 7:40:48 AM    comment []

PLAYING WITH URBAN LIFE: How Simcity Influences Planning Culture, by Daniel G. Lobo with reporting by Larry Schooler, in The Next American City. The utopian beginning of SimCity stressed a desire to influence policy, education in particular, through reflections on the nature of “ideal cities.” No other game had been used so widely in many levels of schooling to help illuminate the different elements of local government. For example, David Lublin, professor at the Department of Governance at American University, has used SimCity to teach 20th Century local government. After creating a SimCity of their own, his students had to write a paper analyzing the game’s underlying principles. “A fundamental aspect of the paper was to stress how SimCity reflected real world conditions, and what aspects were ignored or sent to a second plane,” he said. Because of the widespread use of SimCity in schools and homes, it is easy to make a case, as Paul Starr of The American Prospect has, that SimCity provides a more influential introduction to city planning than any book on the subject. Though SimCity is now looking to the crossroads of simulation and action games, as in its new “Rush Hour” expansion pack, the game’s developers still consider the educational market one of its key audiences. Lucy Bradshaw, Maxis General Manager, says that the future success of the game depends upon special events outside the gaming industry like university partnerships, teacher’s guides for the game, and primary and secondary school licenses. Although still significant, the differences between SimCity and a real city seem to be narrowing. The game has evolved to consider more sophisticated real-life issues–Maxis producer Hogan notes that based on feedback from users, the game designers added such features as development on hilly terrain, regional planning, and bedroom communities to resemble features of real-life urbanism. But more importantly, real world planning increasingly resembles SimCity because of the growing use of technology, often in support of a SimCity-like top-down model of local government. 12:44:32 AM    comment []