Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Judge Questions Feds in NSA Case. The federal judge in the lawsuit over AT&T's alleged complicity in illegal government surveillance puts some posers to the Bush administration. It's the first sign that the government may not be able to kill the EFF's suit by claiming the state-secrets privilege. In 27B Stroke 6. French Bend on ITunes Law. A compromise bill, expected to be approved Thursday, no longer requires companies like Apple to share their technology with rivals. All that will be required is the individual artist's permission for an online music store to have exclusive rights to the music. [Wired News: Top Stories] 9:18:17 PM    comment []

cristal. Just forget you had a day of work ahead of you: Pitchfork's 100 Awesome Music Videos, with YouTube vids included. '80s Music Videos. Flaming Lips cover War Pigs with Cat Power. Sunday Bloody Sunday. Video of the year. New Yorker on Timothy Leary. Onion A/V: 10 Classic Movies It's Okay To Hate. [Fimoculous.com] 9:13:30 PM    comment []

Top of the Pops Gets the Chop. Feeling blue about the cancellation of the BBC's legendary music show? Chin up! More than 1,000 performance clips survive on YouTube. In Listening Post. [Wired News: Top Stories] 9:10:43 PM    comment []

Y'know, it could be worth taking tbl seriously on this subject: Net Neutrality: This is serious. ( real video Mpegs to come) When I invented the Web, I didn't have to ask anyone's permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA. I blogged on net neutrality before, and so did a lot of other people. (see e.g. Danny Weitzner, SaveTheInternet.com, etc.) Since then, some telecommunications companies spent a lot of money on public relations and TV ads, and the US House seems to have wavered from the path of preserving net neutrality. There has been some misinformation spread about. So here are some clarifications. ( real video Mpegs to come) Net neutrality is this: If I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then we can communicate at that level. That's all. Its up to the ISPs to make sure they interoperate so that that happens. Net Neutrality is NOT asking for the internet for free. Net Neutrality is NOT saying that one shouldn't pay more money for high quality of service. We always have, and we always will. There have been suggestions that we don't need legislation because we haven't had it. These are nonsense, because in fact we have had net neutrality in the past -- it is only recently that real explicit threats have occurred. Control of information is hugely powerful. In the US, the threat is that companies control what I can access for commercial reasons. (In China, control is by the government for political reasons.) There is a very strong short-term incentive for a company to grab control of TV distribution over the Internet even though it is against the long-term interests of the industry. Yes, regulation to keep the Internet open is regulation. And mostly, the Internet thrives on lack of regulation. But some basic values have to be preserved. For example, the market system depends on the rule that you can't photocopy money. Democracy depends on freedom of speech. Freedom of connection, with any application, to any party, is the fundamental social basis of the Internet, and, now, the society based on it. Let's see whether the United States is capable as acting according to its important values, or whether it is, as so many people are saying, run by the misguided short-term interested of large corporations. I hope that Congress can protect net neutrality, so I can continue to innovate in the internet space. I want to see the explosion of innovations happening out there on the Web, so diverse and so exciting, continue unabated. [timbl's blog] 9:10:32 PM    comment []

Congrats to Miami. for a terrific game. The Heat were hard not to like. Dwayne Wade is, as Dallas coach Avery Johnson acknowledged, one of the rare players who simply can't be defended when he is determined to score. But as Bill Simmons also says, it's not good for a team game when one player consistently beats five. Especially when that one guy beats the best five-man teams in the league. That's what happened when Miami beat Detroit and Dallas. I've also got to acknowledge the stellar defense of Udonis Haslem on Dirk Nowitski. That, as much as Dwayne's scoring, contributed to Miami's win. Before Udonis, Dirk was nearly as unstoppable as Dwayne. But Udonis got way under Dirk's skin. On the one hand, it made Dallas show off their multi-option offense. On the other hand, it worked out in the end as a winning strategy. At the end of last night's game, the Mavs were low on gas. And yet it was still close. If Jason Terry's shot at the end had gone in, the game probably would have gone into overtime. Then... who knows. But it doesn't matter. Miami won. My kid, the Heat fan, is happy. And I'm happy that he's happy. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 9:09:22 PM    comment []

Amazing photos of starling flocks. Here's what a flock of a million starlings looks like. In Denmark, they call it the Black Sun. Link (via Ursi's Blog) [Boing Boing] 9:09:03 PM    comment []

Scalia's Scholarly Screwup. Wow, this is pretty big news and Balko found it. In last week's Hudson ruling, Scalia makes the following argument as a reason why it was not necessary for the judiciary to enforce the knock and announce rule because there are safeguards in place within the law enforcement community to take care of the problem: Another development over the past half-century that deters civil-rights violations is the increasing professionalism of police forces, including a new emphasis on internal police discipline. Even as long ago as 1980 we felt it proper to "assume" that unlawful police behavior would "be dealt with appropriately" by the authorities, United States v. Payner, 447 U. S. 727, 733-734, n. 5 (1980), but we now have increasing evidence that police forces across the United States take the constitutional rights of citizens seriously. There have been "wide-ranging reforms in the education, training, and supervision of police officers." S. Walker, Taming the System: The Control of Discretion in Criminal Justice 1950-1990, p. 51 (1993). S. Walker is Prof. Sam Walker of UN-Omaha, a criminologist. Balko talked to Walker to see if Scalia was representing his work accurately and this is Walker's response: Walker tells me he learned that Scalia had cited his work, "to my horror." Walker adds, "Scalia turned my research completely on its head. My point was that these reforms came about because the courts, specifically the Warren Court, forced the police to institute better procedures with judicial oversight. Scalia now wants to take that oversight away."  . . .  [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] 9:08:04 PM    comment []

Congratulations to Jenny on her and ALA's Excellent Adventure! I've tried to highlight "Library 2.0-ish" jobs when I come across them, because I think they're an indication that libraries see value in people who can translate what is happening in the outside world to our own. Most recently, I missed a fascinating Electronic Services Specialist job at the Redwood City Public Library in California (sorry, already closed), the "didn't-think-I'd-be-seeing-that-job-title-quite-yet-but-hooray" Wiki Analayst one at EBSCO, and the Nebraska Library Commission's Technology Innovation Librarian (which I almost applied for just for the job title). However, now I get to highlight a NEW 2.0-ish job, and I am particularly excited about it because it's going to be MY new job at the American Library Association! I think I have the coolest job description ever! "Responsibilities: Focuses primarily on content extensions and optimization of 24/7 content delivery and marketing (e.g.RSS); new product development; strategic planning related to new technologies; personalization features; further integration of online communities; and, investigation of new technologies for knowledge transfer and exchange. The overall responsibility is to provide vision and leadership regarding emerging technologies, development of services and their integration into the ALA environment. Specific areas include: 1) content extensions and optimization of 24/7 content delivery, 2) new product development, 3) strategic planning related to integration of new technologies, including ways to reach members and/or customers- current and potential, 4) strategic planning and implementation related to use of new technologies to reach and involve members and 5) further development and integration of Online Communities. Requirements: Masters of Library Science (MLS or MLIS) from an ALA accredited program. Knowledge of 2.0 technologies and concepts. Ability to work in a complex organizational environment. Strong communication ability (written and verbal). Comfort with rapid prototyping...." I'm not sure what I want to say about it at this point, except to thank everyone at ALA who made this possible. I can't wait to meet more of the staff and start working with them! Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about changes I saw happening at OCLC and how this was affecting not just my opinion of the organization, but also its usefulness to me. Lately, I have found myself saying the same things about ALA, and not just because I write for the TechSource Blog or because I helped teach an online course for them. I really like the thought of being part of the continuation of that trend and of helping our professional organization grab hold of the place it should occupy (and lead from) in the online world.  . . . [The Shifted Librarian] 7:50:11 AM    comment []

Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic?. Salon exclusive: Two former AT&T employees say the telecom giant has maintained a secret, highly secure room in St. Louis since 2002. Intelligence experts say it bears the earmarks of a National Security Agency operation. [Salon] 7:46:53 AM    comment []

Three years yesterday on A blog doesn't need a clever name: Almost the complete list of Iranians blogging in English. Eliot on the echo-chamber effect on blogs. Pavlov's slug. Saving Private Jessica. Another view of the arsDigita soap opera, and Aaron parodying Tufte on PowerPoint. No call list news. Real's Rob Glaser on plans for Rhapsody. (Having computer fu; don't know whether this will post.) 7:38:17 AM    comment []