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To this topic, I wrote an article about rights expression languages a while back. Of particular interest might be the sidebar at the end, "Rights: Patent Pending."

To this topic, I wrote an article about rights expression languages a while back. Of particular interest might be the sidebar at the end, "Rights: Patent Pending."

And as for "lying" about how to get a high rank. No kidding. Google doesn't publicize that information for good reason: people like Spam (er search)King abuse the system and then people like him whine when the system they took advantage of is no longer there.

WT: So how does PageRank work?
CS: It takes advantage of the fact that the Web has links. We can use the Web's link structure to get a quality score for every page on the Web. If a lot of high-PageRank pages point to your site, then your site also gets a high PageRank. PageRank wasn't developed for Web search, actually. But when Larry Page, the developer, started studying it, he discovered that the PageRank of a page corresponded closely to his intuitive idea of the quality or importance of a Web page. Intuitively, if Yahoo, the New York Times, and the maintainer of the most popular Barbie Doll site all link to your Web page--I won't try to guess what your Web page might be about--that reflects well on your page. From that observation was born the idea of using this quality score as part of a search engine ranking system--an idea we feel has been very successful.

To further demonstrate Google's impartiality, try doing a Google search for either "google sucks" or "google blows." Two seemingly contradictory phrases, and yet the guy's site shows up top ranked every time! (grins)

From New Architect's February issue. Also discusses so-called "ethical hacking services" that all the big data services players offer.

ENUM in the News

EFA expresses security concerns over ENUM, SMH, November 27, 2002.

Enum's potential applications aren't as widespread as promised, New Architect, July 2002.

Internet Telephone Numbering System (ENUM) offers promise of a single point of contact for all communication devices, ITU Press Release, May 31, 2002.

Listing Again, The Economist, April 11, 2002.

Phone number-to-e-mail service raises privacy concerns, Computerworld, October 5, 2001.

Your Rights Online: A Number For Everything, Slashdot, September 4, 2001.

One number & and no escape anywhere, The Times, September 3, 2001.

Sadly, the correct pronunciation of the title is the most interesting part of the movie! Anyway, as you noted, per the trailers and commercials (which presumably SOMEONE involved with the film has approved*), it's so-LAH-riss. And they're right.

Incidentally, my "it's largely crap" review is posted here at filmcritic.com.

And yes, Sun Solaris is pronounced So-LARE-iss, per numerous Sun employees I deal with all the time at my day job.

* Yes, I realize marketing people unrelated to the film produce the trailers for a movie based on early footage (which is why you often see shots in the trailer that aren't in the final cut of the film), but Steven Soderbergh is so anal that I can't imagine him letting something like the incorrect pronunciation of his film get by... hmm, unless it's pronounced "DEE another day"

Bret writes for New Architect (nee Web Techniques), very well done mag for which I continue to pay...

You can reach him at bret@lextext.com, according to links at New Architect Magazine on-line.

Or check out his list of articles there by searching for his last name. He's articulate - and makes sense - I am not a lawyer, so this is in no way a defense of that profession :-)

You may not get a personal reply, but I'll bet he's looking for sticky legal issues such as this for his column!

This story reminded me of a similar tale about a Las Vegas company (of course) trying to set up a launch pad for space tourism in the Nevada desert. Here's one of the earlier pieces on it - http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/199 9/sep/10/509288711.html (from 1999) -- though googling for NDS Development Corp. takes you to press releases, et al. all the way back to 1996, at least.

Too bad this idea looks stillborn, though it's not terribly surprising. If anyone can figure out whatever became of this idea, I'd love to hear about it.

chrisnull.com - read my book, Half Mast - filmcritic.com - New Architect

Our review is here: http://filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/84dbbfa4d7 10144986256c290016f76e/97dd7b74d233c3d288256c1c007 0aeaa?OpenDocument ... a positive review, though my guy at the Telluride film festival thought it was pap.

That baby freaks me out.

chrisnull.com - read my book, Half Mast - filmcritic.com - New Architect

I've been working on a story for New Architect about RIAA's lawsuit against Verizon and in that case (as well as this one), the RIAA appears to have little regard for standard legal procedure--according to those I interviewed, it's trying to subpoena information about a P2P file trader without presenting evidence of wrongdoing and without actually filing a legal action against that person. In effect, the RIAA wants the law and your ISP to view you as guilty until proven innocent where copyright claims are concerned. It's a sound legal strategy, actually--certainly, it's more cost effective than trying to sue several million music fans.

Over the lifetime of the Macarthur Grant,

12 people have won in the category of DANCE, while 11 people have won in the category of PUBLIC HEALTH

Dance, genius, dance!

chrisnull.com - read my book, Half Mast - filmcritic.com - New Architect

chrisnull.com - read my book, Half Mast - filmcritic.com - New Architect

- Christopher Null

chrisnull.com - read my book, Half Mast - filmcritic.com - New Architect

Discussing this on /. is all well and good, but if he is really astroturfing, and it appears that he is, someone that understands what is going on should submit a response article to the New Architect site. The do accept submissions. Check out http://www.newarchitectmag.com/guidelines/. I would do it, but I am not an expert on setting up mail servers or on the effectiveness of the black list.

Here is another example about how a lawyer (turned technology writer) can still be totally clueless, not only about the technology (e.g. any spammer can forge his domain to use his mail server), but even how the law applies (he gave permission to test for open relay, and it is common and standard practice for such tests to perform, in a non-malicious way, every known technique that a spammer might perform). By the way, I wrote that guy a long and detailed letter, in a non-threatening and non-abusive way, simply describing to him all the details of how it all works. To date I have not received a reply. But it's probably because his mail server is still an open relay, and still listed in one of the DNSbls I use.

Lawyers are just dumb about technology. Here is some evidence of that. In this article a lawyer turned technology writer who runs a server still has no clue about how a mail server can be an open relay, and even how the law applies (e.g. he gave permission to test and that implies using standard and conventional methods).

a la snoop the Starbucks wireless network

This article, a lead August story at New.Architect Magazine, written by a clueless idiot who only thinks he understands technology, shows why fighting spam will remain a difficult task for the forseeable future. If he can't understand that spammers will forge email addresses, and that it's trivial to do, and that any test must do the same thing to be valid, he shouldn't even be writing in a technology oriented publication, much less be allowed to pursue such claims in court. It's people like that, that spammers love to have around.

This article, a lead August story at New.Architect Magazine, written by a clueless idiot who only thinks he understands technology, shows why fighting spam will remain a difficult task for the forseeable future. If he can't understand that spammers will forge email addresses, and that it's trivial to do, and that any test must do the same thing to be valid, he shouldn't even be writing in a technology oriented publication, much less be allowed to pursue such claims in court. It's people like that, that spammers love to have around.