After a long winter's slumber all it took was 2 new spark plugs!
An amazingly sunny weekend helped kick off this summer season on Moon River, in Bala Muskoka.
God bless that 35 h.p. long shaft two-stroke Johnson :-)
-JPWP
Sunday, May 30, 2004
"Ship of Fools" is back on the Moon!
After a long winter's slumber all it took was 2 new spark plugs!
An amazingly sunny weekend helped kick off this summer season on Moon River, in Bala Muskoka.
God bless that 35 h.p. long shaft two-stroke Johnson :-)
-JPWP
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) explained:
RSS is...
1. A format.
2. Content management tools that generate feeds in the format.
3. Aggregators and readers that subscribe to the feeds.
4. Search engines and utilities that crunch the information and ideas.
5. Services from technology companies like Microsoft and Apple.
6. Authoritative publications like the BBC, The New York Times, CNET, InfoWorld, PC World, Time, Wired, Salon, Yahoo, Reuters -- that distribute news and opinion in RSS.
7. Many thousands of weblogs covering virtually every aspect of life on this planet.
8. A vast and growing community of thinkers, writers, educators, public servants, and technologists.
The revolution of RSS is what people are doing with it, what it enables, the way it works for people who use technology, the freedom it offers, and the way it makes timely information, that used to be expensive and for the select-few so inexpensive and broadly available.
RSS is the next thing in Internet and knowledge management. It's big. A lot bigger than a format.
This is the inaugural post for a new website devoted to the community of people who create and use RSS. It's just a beginning.
Link to Dave Winer.
1. A format.
2. Content management tools that generate feeds in the format.
3. Aggregators and readers that subscribe to the feeds.
4. Search engines and utilities that crunch the information and ideas.
5. Services from technology companies like Microsoft and Apple.
6. Authoritative publications like the BBC, The New York Times, CNET, InfoWorld, PC World, Time, Wired, Salon, Yahoo, Reuters -- that distribute news and opinion in RSS.
7. Many thousands of weblogs covering virtually every aspect of life on this planet.
8. A vast and growing community of thinkers, writers, educators, public servants, and technologists.
The revolution of RSS is what people are doing with it, what it enables, the way it works for people who use technology, the freedom it offers, and the way it makes timely information, that used to be expensive and for the select-few so inexpensive and broadly available.
RSS is the next thing in Internet and knowledge management. It's big. A lot bigger than a format.
This is the inaugural post for a new website devoted to the community of people who create and use RSS. It's just a beginning.
Link to Dave Winer.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Way Cool B-52
(via BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin)
A very serious, flight capable, radio controlled B-52.
I read on slashdot that the mini turbine engines run around $3K USD a piece. Wonder if you can get tiny Napalm or Arklite ordinance for it? ;-)
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
The Times and Iraq: 20/20 Hindsight?
Finally the NYT offers up an analysis of its pre-war coverage.
"But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged — or failed to emerge."
Link
"But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged — or failed to emerge."
Link
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Frontline: The Way The Music Died
This PBS Frontline documentary airs this Thursday May 27th at 9PM.
Should be a good one:
"It's a classic example of art and commerce colliding and nobody wins," says Nic Harcourt, music director at Los Angeles's KCRW-FM. "It's just a train wreck."
The modern music scene was created in 1969, at Woodstock. Half a million fans, dozens of artists, and the politics of the times came together as a big bang moment that eventually would generate billions of dollars. But over the last twenty years, MTV, compact discs, corporate consolidation, Internet piracy, and greed have contributed to a perfect storm for the recording industry. FRONTLINE examines how the business that has provided the soundtrack of the lives of a generation is on the verge of collapse. Link
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Newsweek on the "Double Standard"
This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but Newsweek's investigative journalist, Michael Isikoff, shines a light on Washington's double standard regarding "customary international law of armed conflict" as it relates to Afgahnistan and Al Queda.
In my view, the fact that law relating to armed conflict is 'customary' is kind of a sad concept.
All war is savage.
Here's a previous post on breaking the law to get at law breakers from this blog...
a rant worth revisiting.
-JPWP
In my view, the fact that law relating to armed conflict is 'customary' is kind of a sad concept.
All war is savage.
Here's a previous post on breaking the law to get at law breakers from this blog...
a rant worth revisiting.
-JPWP
Friday, May 21, 2004
The U.S. Constitiution: A Suggestion, not a Rule
the Justice Department just retroactively classified information given to Congress in 2002 that charged the department missed warnings in relation to terrorism. Link
Link to New York Times article
Link to New York Times article
Hot Air
(via J.D. Lasica's "New Media Musings")
A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost so she lowers her altitude and spots a man in a boat below. She shouts to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but don't know where I am."
The man consults his portable GPS and replies, "You're in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above ground at an elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."
She rolls her eyes and says, "You must be a Democrat."
"I am," replies the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," answers the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."
The man smiles and responds, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replies the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect ME to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault.
(thanks JD!)
A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost so she lowers her altitude and spots a man in a boat below. She shouts to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but don't know where I am."
The man consults his portable GPS and replies, "You're in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above ground at an elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."
She rolls her eyes and says, "You must be a Democrat."
"I am," replies the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," answers the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."
The man smiles and responds, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replies the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect ME to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault.
(thanks JD!)
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
The Boss: circa 1975
Time Magazine now has several RSS webfeeds (a simple, elegant and incredibly cheap form of syndication).
Among the RSS links is a cool feed featuring an archive of Time cover photos.
This was a favorite, from 1975:
...and this one from 1995:
Among the RSS links is a cool feed featuring an archive of Time cover photos.
This was a favorite, from 1975:
...and this one from 1995:
Twilight of the info middlemen
From Rebecca MacKinnon:
In [Sunday's] New York Times, James Fallows has an article titled "Twilight of the info middlemen". As he introduces blogs to a readership not necessarily familiar with him, he writes:
"the Internet's most fascinating impact has been on those who have decided not to charge for their work."
Fallows grasps a key point about weblogs, one worth emphasizing as this medium grows more mainstream: blogging was born out of the desire for free expression and the desire to share one's self-expression freely and easily with others... not out of the desire for profit.
She also has this on Bill Moyers:
Bill Moyers is also a blog fan. At the very end of his recent Fresh Air interview on NPR he says:
"I think the internet, the blogging, is the closest we've come in a long time to the history of the American media in the beginning. You know in the 1820's, 1830's all you needed to be a journalist was to buy a press. That's why they called them inkstained wretches. Because they operated their own hand presses. For a little bit of money, like Tom Payne and others, you could have your own press. ....... After the revolution independent journalists, printers they called themselves, sprung up all over the country ... they were partisan by the way, vociferously. They attacked the others politics. but it was a healthy period of bombast in america in which people could sort out the information. I think the bloggers, then the websites, come closest to the spirit of cacophany, to that democratic expression, that we had in the early part of this country's history.
In [Sunday's] New York Times, James Fallows has an article titled "Twilight of the info middlemen". As he introduces blogs to a readership not necessarily familiar with him, he writes:
"the Internet's most fascinating impact has been on those who have decided not to charge for their work."
Fallows grasps a key point about weblogs, one worth emphasizing as this medium grows more mainstream: blogging was born out of the desire for free expression and the desire to share one's self-expression freely and easily with others... not out of the desire for profit.
She also has this on Bill Moyers:
Bill Moyers is also a blog fan. At the very end of his recent Fresh Air interview on NPR he says:
"I think the internet, the blogging, is the closest we've come in a long time to the history of the American media in the beginning. You know in the 1820's, 1830's all you needed to be a journalist was to buy a press. That's why they called them inkstained wretches. Because they operated their own hand presses. For a little bit of money, like Tom Payne and others, you could have your own press. ....... After the revolution independent journalists, printers they called themselves, sprung up all over the country ... they were partisan by the way, vociferously. They attacked the others politics. but it was a healthy period of bombast in america in which people could sort out the information. I think the bloggers, then the websites, come closest to the spirit of cacophany, to that democratic expression, that we had in the early part of this country's history.
Monday, May 17, 2004
What to do when those pesky laws get in the way
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Colin Powell on "Meet the Press"... wow.
NBC's Meet The Press
(Comments & video links from Lisa Rein)
This is from the May 16, 2004 program of Meet the Press.
"This is pretty unbelievable. Colin Powell's press aide attempted to put an early end to the interview by suddenly moving the camera away from Powell (right after Powell addresses the torture situation and right before Russert asks a hard-hitting question about the fake nigerian yellow cake WMD evidence he cited within his U.N. speech). Powell gets her out of the way somehow, manages to get the camera pointed in the right direction, and resumes the interview. You can hear him say "Emily, get out of the way."
Here's the clip that contains what I mention above
(happens about half way through):
Colin Powell Clip - Meet The Press (12 MB) Powell's response to the torture situation preceeds it.
Here's the whole interview:
Colin Powell On Meet The Press - Part 1 of 2 (16 MB)
Colin Powell On Meet The Press - Part 2 of 2 (20 MB)
UPDATE: Lisa's servers got smoked with requests and are down.
Here's a Bit Torrent File Of Colin Powell Clips
If you don't have a bit torrent client, get one here
Text:
EMILY MILLER, STATE DEPARTMENT PRESS AIDE: You're off.
SECRETARY POWELL: I am not off.
EMILY MILLER, PRESS AIDE: No. They can't use it, they're editing it.
SECRETARY POWELL: He's still asking the questions.
EMILY MILLER, PRESS AIDE: He was not ...
SECRETARY POWELL: Tim, I am sorry I lost you.
MR. RUSSERT: I am right here Mr. Secretary. I would hope they would put you back on camera. I don't know who did that.
EMILY MILLER, PRESS AIDE: He was going to go for another five minutes.
SECRETARY POWELL: We've really scre...
MR. RUSSERT: I think that was one of your staff Mr. Secretary. I don't think that's appropriate.
SECRETARY POWELL: Emily, get out of the way. Bring the camera back please. (Camera returns to the interview subject) I think we're back on Tim, go ahead with your last question.
Digital Revolution Reshaping News
From: "The Mail & Guardian Online"
"What's changed, though, is the technology," said Steve Vines, publisher of a Hong Kong weekly news and political satire magazine, Spike. "The technology is cheaper and faster than ever before, and the internet has a global outreach."
"At a stroke, the main barriers to publishing -- cost and geography -- have vanished and the result is explosive". Link
"What's changed, though, is the technology," said Steve Vines, publisher of a Hong Kong weekly news and political satire magazine, Spike. "The technology is cheaper and faster than ever before, and the internet has a global outreach."
"At a stroke, the main barriers to publishing -- cost and geography -- have vanished and the result is explosive". Link
"Help! Jane! Stop this crazy thing!"
A perfect rig for George Jetson...
The Sky Car
"The M400 needs 35 clear feet to take off but thanks to its 770 hp engine can whiz to 365 mph - cruise control kicks in at 326 mph Link
E-Z Rocket:
oh, and this'll get you to and from work or the cottage in a hurry as well:
Link to E-Z Rocket Homepage
The Sky Car
"The M400 needs 35 clear feet to take off but thanks to its 770 hp engine can whiz to 365 mph - cruise control kicks in at 326 mph Link
E-Z Rocket:
oh, and this'll get you to and from work or the cottage in a hurry as well:
Link to E-Z Rocket Homepage
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Read this and understand the P2P wars
via Cory Doctorow / BoingBoing:
"The first music pirates (the recording industry, who ripped off sheet music) got this proper dressing-down from John Phillip Sousa, who told Congress:
'These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy...in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal chord left. The vocal chord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape.'
"Tim Wu runs down the history of cable versus broadcasters, and other copyfights down through the ages. He does so clearly and engagingly, in ways that non-lawyers and non-historians can readily grasp. And when it's done, the most amazing thing is the certainty that copryight-disrupting technologies every bit as wooly as file-sharing have been invented over and over again, and that the P2P fight is not a new one -- that piracy is the norm, not the exception."
"If you want to understand the P2P fight, read this -- it is the most concise, thorough and engaging text on the subject to date."
560k PDF Link Thanks Cory!
...and here's a related story from Wired magazine
Link to "New Spin on the Music Business"
"The first music pirates (the recording industry, who ripped off sheet music) got this proper dressing-down from John Phillip Sousa, who told Congress:
'These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy...in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal chord left. The vocal chord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape.'
"Tim Wu runs down the history of cable versus broadcasters, and other copyfights down through the ages. He does so clearly and engagingly, in ways that non-lawyers and non-historians can readily grasp. And when it's done, the most amazing thing is the certainty that copryight-disrupting technologies every bit as wooly as file-sharing have been invented over and over again, and that the P2P fight is not a new one -- that piracy is the norm, not the exception."
"If you want to understand the P2P fight, read this -- it is the most concise, thorough and engaging text on the subject to date."
560k PDF Link Thanks Cory!
...and here's a related story from Wired magazine
Link to "New Spin on the Music Business"
An excellent Cory Doctotow rant!
...about piracy warnings in the UK cinema.
I love it:
"Every time I see this, my blood boils. I just paid a fortune to see this movie, I've been subjected to 500 percent concession stand markup and half an hour of commercials and now you're going to give me a little lecture about how badly I'll get beaten up if I turn out to be a pirate, and ask me to snitch on my fellow moviegoers?"
Link
I love it:
"Every time I see this, my blood boils. I just paid a fortune to see this movie, I've been subjected to 500 percent concession stand markup and half an hour of commercials and now you're going to give me a little lecture about how badly I'll get beaten up if I turn out to be a pirate, and ask me to snitch on my fellow moviegoers?"
Link
Friday, May 14, 2004
Brutally Honest Personal Ads
Hers: "Even though I run marathons, I still can't lose those few pounds. But I can probably kick someone to death with my legs of steel."
His: "When I do have a job, it's low paying, and credit consolidators take half of what I earn. I'm behind on my rent, emotionally closed, and take medication to treat my depression."
Link
Burt Rutan hits 200,000 feet
Looks like Burt is very close to winning the X-Prize
(The first, private, commercial, manned space flight: $10M purse).
His company "Scaled Composites" has built many award winning, record setting aircraft (sadly including the one John Denver bit it in) but they're now aiming for outer space using a 2 stage vehicle.
Here's the whole rig:
Link
UPDATE:
"Given all the rocket plane activity at the Mojave Airport, steps have been taken to have the facility certified as a spaceport.
Stuart Witt, General Manager of the Mojave Airport, envisions the site busily handling the horizontal launchings and landings of reusable spacecraft.
Witt said the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation is reviewing an application to license Mojave Airport as an inland spaceport. In fact, the airport is already a natural center for research and development and certification programs, such as the rocket plane work of Scaled Composites and XCOR Aerospace". Link
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Doin' it like Rabbits
via BoingBoing
"Swatch installed a Times Square billboard advertising their new Bunnysutra watch emblazoned with cartoon illustrations of "happy bunny positions." Predictably, plenty of people are offended. Here's a Link to a an article with a slideshow of the billboard images.
and, a New York Post article filled with quotes from the aforementioned angry Americans. Link"
Teens Online: Girls Rule!
"Teens using the Internet shape trends, says three Jupiter Research reports. And the 18 million U.S. teens using the Internet is expected to soar to 22 million in 2008...more online teens are regular users of instant messaging (71 percent) and online content like personal pages and Weblogs (30 percent). Teens also outpace adults in gaming, music and movies, but participate less in online entertainment categories like sports and TV."
And, apparently, girls rule. "Conventional wisdom says girls mature faster than boys do, and this phenomenon holds true online," says Vikram Sehgal, research director of JupiterResearch. "On average, a 14-year-old girl is more active online than a 17-year-old boy. Teen boys spend 150 percent more time per week playing online games than girls do, but girls spend 22 percent more time online."
(Thanks to Susan Mernit)
Link
And, apparently, girls rule. "Conventional wisdom says girls mature faster than boys do, and this phenomenon holds true online," says Vikram Sehgal, research director of JupiterResearch. "On average, a 14-year-old girl is more active online than a 17-year-old boy. Teen boys spend 150 percent more time per week playing online games than girls do, but girls spend 22 percent more time online."
(Thanks to Susan Mernit)
Link
Say Cheese!
A Man for all Seasons - true today
This film blew me away when I saw it on the big screen at the age of six.
Actor Paul Scofield portrays Sir Thomas Moore, a respected English statesman, whose steadfast refusal to recognize King Henry the VIII's mariage to Ann Boleyn cost him his head. It won 6 Academy Awards in 1966 and was directed by: Fred Zinnemann (who also directed the original "Day of the Jackal")
I watched this film again on DVD last weekend.
This exchange (also a passage from the play by Robert Bolt) was absolutely amazing, and I think it's extremely relevant today:
LADY ALICE MOORE: Arrest him! He's a bad man. He's dangerous!
MOORE: There's no law against that.
SON-IN-LAW ROPER: There is! -- Gods Law!
MOORE: Then God can arrest him.
LADY ALICE MOORE: While you talk -- he's gone!
MOORE: and go he should if he were the Devil himself... until he broke the law.
SON-IN-LAW ROPER: So... now you'd give the Devil the benefit of law!
MOORE: Yes! what would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get to the Devil?
SON-IN-LAW ROPER: Yes... I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
MOORE: Oh? and when the last law was down and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide Roper? - the laws all being flat.
This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, mans laws not Gods and and if you cut them down -- and you're JUST the man to do it -- do you think you could really stand upright in the winds that would blow then?
Yes, I'd give the Devil the benfit of law for my own safety's sake.
This scene remided me that US Attorney General John Ashcroft may be the only guy around who knows which way the winds are blowing...
Link to EFF Analysis of the US Patriot Act
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Sen. John McCain: on the Daily Show
Old Time Radio @ RadioLovers.com
"Calling all fossils!"
This looks like a site even my Mom might actually like :-)
"We offer hundreds of vintage radio shows for you to listen to online in mp3 format, all for free. Before the days of video games, shopping malls, MTV, and the Internet, families used to sit in their living room each night to listen to radio shows such as Abbott and Costello, Superman, Groucho Marx, The Avenger, Gunsmoke, Sherlock Homes, and many others. When TV become popular in the 1950's, most of these shows went off the air, but they now live on at websites such as this one and on weekly nostalgia radio broadcasts worldwide".
Link
Iconic images taken by amateurs
Digital cameras, photo phones, and the Internet are revolutionizing news photography
Link to Poynter.org posting
Link to a few frontline Photo blogs
Rumsfeld Techniques
"Wax on... wax off..."
a la Mr. Myagi's Karate Kid :-)
This one has been floating around for a while.
Link
From the Ephemeral to the Eternal
I've been thinking about this issue a lot.
Ten years ago the 'big worry' for future historians was:
"gee, with the advent of the personal computer and the interent there'll be no more documents or personal written correspondences for the historical record".
Well, there might not be a lot of inky parchments lying around in the future but there'll be a whole lotta sumpin'
Here's a great essay (in progress) from John Battelle's Searchblog.
(can you say "digital snail trail" ? :-)
Link
Ten years ago the 'big worry' for future historians was:
"gee, with the advent of the personal computer and the interent there'll be no more documents or personal written correspondences for the historical record".
Well, there might not be a lot of inky parchments lying around in the future but there'll be a whole lotta sumpin'
Here's a great essay (in progress) from John Battelle's Searchblog.
(can you say "digital snail trail" ? :-)
Link
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Red Cross Report on Abu Ghraib
Even before the war in Iraq ended a year ago, and well before U.S. officials have generally acknowledged it, the [International Committee of the] Red Cross began periodically lodging complaints about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners in allied custody, according to a confidential report by the organization. Link
and here's a related and rather interesting position courtesy of the DNC Daily Dispatch:
on the topic of "outrage": Link
and here's a related and rather interesting position courtesy of the DNC Daily Dispatch:
on the topic of "outrage": Link
The New Normal (Silicon Valley Style)
With fewer IPOs and a slew of new regulations, expect to see a lot more M&A activity.
Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes Magazine, recently hosted a meeting of the minds sponsored by Garage Technology Ventures. Among his panelists were Magdalena Yesil, a Partner of US Venture Partners; Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners; Ted Schlein, a General Partner of Kleiner Perkins; and Heidi Roizen, Managing Director at Mobius Venture Capital. Link
Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes Magazine, recently hosted a meeting of the minds sponsored by Garage Technology Ventures. Among his panelists were Magdalena Yesil, a Partner of US Venture Partners; Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners; Ted Schlein, a General Partner of Kleiner Perkins; and Heidi Roizen, Managing Director at Mobius Venture Capital. Link
US Housing Bubble
here's an excellent (albeit scary) read from the April 2004 Washington Monthly -- on the US housing market bubble.
Clearly the best information I've seen to date on a complex topic that citzens of all countries should be aware of.
Link to: "There Goes the Neighborhood"
and SiliconValley.com journalist Dan Gillmor pipes in on the topic here: Link
Clearly the best information I've seen to date on a complex topic that citzens of all countries should be aware of.
Link to: "There Goes the Neighborhood"
and SiliconValley.com journalist Dan Gillmor pipes in on the topic here: Link
Sonic Fabric
...and probably tougher to clean than Ultra-suede!
(via Cory, BoingBoing)
SonicFabric is "a sound-emitting textile made from recycled audio cassette tape."
This dress, created especially for Phish percussionist Jon Fishman (and modeled after one he traditionally wears), contains a special sound collage composed of the musician's personal inspirations, including Jimi Hendrix, Sun Ra, Led Zeppelin, Prince, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bob Marley, and lectures by Robert Thurman, Joseph Campbell, and Terrence McKenna. The dress was "played" for the first time in public (using custom palm-mounted tape head apparatus) during a Phish concert in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 16, 2004 in front of 20,000 people. Link
WiFi Phenomenon
Via CBS News MarketWatch:
"Brian Cruikshank, senior vice president at Ipsos-Insight, a research firm, said 134 million people have tried or used some form of wireless, or 40 percent of people with access to the Internet. On average, around the world, one in four people have heard of Wi-Fi, the wireless data standard. And nearly one in 10 in urban parts of China use it to access the Internet.
The most explosive growth days for Wi-Fi are to come, Cruikshank added. Last year, the number of households with mobile phones grew by 100 million, representing a growth rate five times that of PCs. "As mobile phone penetration continues to increase, Internet-enabled handsets will likely become commonplace," Cruikshank said. E-mail and text messaging top the activities of mobile users, while at least one in 10 engaged in wireless photo messaging, gaming, instant messaging or Web browsing".
"The Face of the Web" study by Ipsos-Insight was conducted in October 2003 and included adults in 13 countries. Link
"Brian Cruikshank, senior vice president at Ipsos-Insight, a research firm, said 134 million people have tried or used some form of wireless, or 40 percent of people with access to the Internet. On average, around the world, one in four people have heard of Wi-Fi, the wireless data standard. And nearly one in 10 in urban parts of China use it to access the Internet.
The most explosive growth days for Wi-Fi are to come, Cruikshank added. Last year, the number of households with mobile phones grew by 100 million, representing a growth rate five times that of PCs. "As mobile phone penetration continues to increase, Internet-enabled handsets will likely become commonplace," Cruikshank said. E-mail and text messaging top the activities of mobile users, while at least one in 10 engaged in wireless photo messaging, gaming, instant messaging or Web browsing".
"The Face of the Web" study by Ipsos-Insight was conducted in October 2003 and included adults in 13 countries. Link
"Movie industry is to 'fair use' what the Boston Strangler was to the woman alone"
From "Good Morning Silicon Valley" newsletter:
"Backing up your digital media is a bad idea. At least according to the Motion Picture Association of America, which on Wednesday will argue against an amendment to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that would allow us to legally make backup copies of our DVDs, CDs, etc. as long we own them and are not infringing upon copyrights. "There is no right in the copyright law to make backup copies of motion pictures, so the whole argument that people should have the right to make backup copies of DVDs has no legal support whatsoever," said Fritz Attaway, executive vice president of the MPAA. "It's against consumers' interests to permit devices that make backup copies, because there is no way that a device can distinguish between a backup copy for personal use and making a copy for friends, family acquaintances or even selling on the street corner."
"Backing up your digital media is a bad idea. At least according to the Motion Picture Association of America, which on Wednesday will argue against an amendment to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that would allow us to legally make backup copies of our DVDs, CDs, etc. as long we own them and are not infringing upon copyrights. "There is no right in the copyright law to make backup copies of motion pictures, so the whole argument that people should have the right to make backup copies of DVDs has no legal support whatsoever," said Fritz Attaway, executive vice president of the MPAA. "It's against consumers' interests to permit devices that make backup copies, because there is no way that a device can distinguish between a backup copy for personal use and making a copy for friends, family acquaintances or even selling on the street corner."
If the "logic" of Attaway's "Boston Strangler" argument escapes you, you're not alone. Many folks have trouble understanding why they should be held criminally liable for backing up digital media that they own. "Moms and dads shouldn't have to fork over another $20-$30 every time little Johnny or Suzie scratches their DVD. The technology exists to prevent them from having to do that," said Robert Moore, president of 321 Studios, manufacturer of a popular DVD ripper. "We're not talking about free use here and we're not talking about providing consumers the skeleton key to everyone else's property. We're talking about giving people lawful use of the property they lawfully acquired." Link to FoxNews Story
Oh... and here is outgoing MPAA President, Jack Valenti, "the VCR is the Boston Strangler of the entertainment business" testimony (coutesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation). Link
PSP Photos
Photos of the forthcoming Play Station Portable, from this mornings SONY press conference.
Link to Photos (via Gizmodo)
Let's hope they do a better job on this portable playstation than they did on their iPod Killer.
Link
Quova acquires Infosplit
a late post but good news from last month.
Mountain View based, geo-intelligence technology firm Quova, acquires Infosplit in a cash/stock deal... and we at Infosplit are all very happy! :-)
Link to Press Release
Perfect Storm
Posted by Steve Yelvington (via Poynter.org)
"News sites are having a great year, with soaring revenues and profits. But media companies more broadly face "the perfect storm of the Internet," said Chris Schroeder, VP of strategy for the Washington Post Company and former publisher of Washingtonpost.com, in his keynote address this morning at the E&P/Mediaweek Interactive Media conference in Atlanta.
Traditional media are aggregators at heart, and now face an array of new aggregator-competitors on the Internet. Disaggregators are building new businesses that chip away at content as well as advertising; even sports teams are running their own web destinations. And new forces are aggregating services that previously were scattered -- LendingTree, TicketMaster, and others.
To survive this storm, Schroeder said, it's essential for sites to focus on delivering quality audiences through registration and behavioral targeting, and to focus on content that delivers nuance and not just commodity data."
Link
"News sites are having a great year, with soaring revenues and profits. But media companies more broadly face "the perfect storm of the Internet," said Chris Schroeder, VP of strategy for the Washington Post Company and former publisher of Washingtonpost.com, in his keynote address this morning at the E&P/Mediaweek Interactive Media conference in Atlanta.
Traditional media are aggregators at heart, and now face an array of new aggregator-competitors on the Internet. Disaggregators are building new businesses that chip away at content as well as advertising; even sports teams are running their own web destinations. And new forces are aggregating services that previously were scattered -- LendingTree, TicketMaster, and others.
To survive this storm, Schroeder said, it's essential for sites to focus on delivering quality audiences through registration and behavioral targeting, and to focus on content that delivers nuance and not just commodity data."
Link
Google Gets It
via "AlwaysOn Network":
"Wake up folks: Google gets it. The value of transactional content, that is. Not only does this have great implications for content, but also for broadband in general. Google is a unique company, as its founders assert in their filing letter. The claim is substantive. Here is why: Content means nothing to me unless it has relevance for what I do. Search engines are dedicated to this..."
"With more than several thousand Terabits of data distributed over the Internet, I need more and more of this intangible asset called 'relevance.' The more relevance, the more intelligence, and the more intelligence, the more this information is actionable. This contributes toward effectiveness, which is the only real benchmark of any world-class application."
Link
The Petabox
Mmmmmm.... One MIllion Gigabytes of storage!
Part of the Internet Archive Project.
I want one :-)
Link
Monday, May 10, 2004
The Jesus Factor
This Frontline documentary aired last week on PBS and is available on-line.
Forget the Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim or whadevuh vote... if 80% of Evangelical Christians vote for him... George Bush is likely to become the next President of the United Sates.
Chapter One (6-8 minutes, Real or Windows Media) Link
Ask Elvis on BBC-2
Ask the King anything you like... on the BBC Radio 2 morning show :-)
Real Audio streams. Hysterical!
Link
John Stewart on Iraqi Prison
Lisa Rein has posted a great clip from the Daily Show... on the Iraq torture scandal.
4.8MB QuickTime Link to Rob Courddry On The US Torture Of Iraqi Prisoners
4.8MB QuickTime Link to Rob Courddry On The US Torture Of Iraqi Prisoners
What a Prince!
For those of you who've never seen or heard the Saudi Ambassador to the US (and have a high speed connection to the web) check out these Quicktime video clips of Prince Bandar-Bin-Sultan on "Meet the Press" with host Tim Russert.... man, this guy is a real piece of work (thank you TiVo-mistress Lisa Rein!)
Prince Bandar: Video
and my absolute favorite quote from the
Frontline: "Looking for Answers" (9/11 & Terrorism)
interview with journalist Lowell Bergman:
FRONTLINE: But we have talked to intellectuals, doctors, dissidents who are not in the country who say that to do business in Saudi Arabia, you must have a partner in the royal family. You must have an "in," in the country. It's not an open system. It's a corrupt system. ...
PRINCE BANDAR: You know what? I would be offended if I thought we had a monopoly on corruption. I think--
FRONTLINE: You know the image, though. You know what I'm talking about.
PRINCE BANDAR: Yeah, I know the image. But you don't know your image either in my country, in my world. In other words, the image of the West is not any better. What I'm saying is, if you have house of glass, don't throw stones.
But the way I answer the corruption charges is this. In the last 30 years, we have implemented a development program that was approximately ... close to $400 billion worth, OK? Now, look at the whole country, where it was, where it is now. And I am confident after you look at it, you could not have done all of that for less than, let's say, $350 billion.
If you tell me that building this whole country, and spending $350 billion out of $400 billion, that we misused or got corrupted with $50 billion, I'll tell you, "Yes." But I'll take that any time. There are so many countries in the Third World that have oil that are still 30 years behind. But, more important, more important -- who are you to tell me this? ... What I'm trying to tell you is, so what? We did not invent corruption, nor did those dissidents, who are so genius, discover it. This happened since Adam and Eve. ... I mean, this is human nature. But we are not as bad as you think. ...
Link to Full Text of Interview
Finn in Town!
My six month old nephew Finn's 1st visit to Bala last weekend.
No boats in the water yet but that didn't stop him from having fun!
Link to Photos
Michael Moore
Love him or hate him... he's got something to say:
"Michael Moore has known for a year that we will not distribute this movie, so this is not news." Yes, that is what I thought, too, except Disney kept sending us all that money to make the movie. Miramax said there was no problem. I got the idea that everything was fine.
"It is not in the best interests of our company to distribute a partisan political film that may offend some of our customers." Hmmm. Disney doesn't distribute work that has partisan politics? Disney distributes and syndicates the Sean Hannity radio show every day? I get to listen to Rush Limbaugh every day on Disney-owned WABC. I also seem to remember that Disney distributed a very partisan political movie during a Congressional election year, 1998, a film called "The Big One" by, um, ME!"
Keep an eye out for his new film, soon to be screened at The Cannes Film Festival:
"Farenheit 9/11": the temperature at which freedom burns.
Link
"Michael Moore has known for a year that we will not distribute this movie, so this is not news." Yes, that is what I thought, too, except Disney kept sending us all that money to make the movie. Miramax said there was no problem. I got the idea that everything was fine.
"It is not in the best interests of our company to distribute a partisan political film that may offend some of our customers." Hmmm. Disney doesn't distribute work that has partisan politics? Disney distributes and syndicates the Sean Hannity radio show every day? I get to listen to Rush Limbaugh every day on Disney-owned WABC. I also seem to remember that Disney distributed a very partisan political movie during a Congressional election year, 1998, a film called "The Big One" by, um, ME!"
Keep an eye out for his new film, soon to be screened at The Cannes Film Festival:
"Farenheit 9/11": the temperature at which freedom burns.
Link
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