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"Ashcroft is actually now teaching local law enforcement how to misapply anti-terror legislation to petty crime"

can you link me to some articles concerning this revelation?

A little Google never hurt anyone.

Not only is Ashcroft spending thousands on drapes to cover lady Justice, but he has printed glossy brochures inviting people to lectures on how to extend the PATRIOT Act! And he's been going on tour on our dollars!

Here are some more choice selections for you. Remember the missing WMD in Iraq? Maybe it was Crystal Meth!

I would expect to see the price of super compting dropping dramatically in the comming year. This is based on the press release from Clearspeed regarding their new processor. Here is a wired article that talk a little more about it. Its worth the read.

Not that kind of purchasing power, but the super computing power rather..

According to this Wired article a small firm in CA called Clear Speed will soon revolutionize the PC space with Super computing power.

I know we will all believe it when we can find these chips on Bestbuy aisle no:4, but still currently from where I am sitting (I am sitting on a Microsoft biztalk server 2004 training session, boring as hell, being inundated by claims of innovation by a clueless trainer who programmed in Visual basic for her entire life), Clear speed is as close to Innovation that I can think of and its more of them that this industry/world need, and less of Microsoft.

Oh..lunch time.. gotta go hit on some free sandwiches. Viva la microsoft..

Even though you're sticking with Windows 2000, which is what many Windows users are planning to do, you threw away your options on refusing DRM when you installed SP3. Windows 2000 SP3 gives MS admin rights to your box, which has been suggested as a means to force upgrades even if it means breaking your existing applications. MS has worked hard and long enough to earn its shoddy reputation that I don't doubt that if it stays in business, it will eventually force DRM once Palladium (aka NGSCB/BIOS/LaGrande/Office2003) reaches critical market saturation.

Though as a business you have more flexibility as there is less obligation to keep records accessible to the public than would a government agency or service. Plus if vendor lock-in and unreasonable IT costs tip your business over the edge into bankruptcy, no one except you would notice. Every one else just sees a failed company.

you can check out other articles about this at Wired and CNETNews

To follow up on my own post, the complete letter can be found here, the 1997 Wired article here. Note that the article mentions "Where once [Apple] commanded nearly one-fifth the world's personal computer sales, its share has dwindled to less than 4 percent." Now, 6 years later this has not grown (it may have even shrunk a percentage point)...

It seems that the DoJ under Ashcroft is sneaking through all these hard-core bills because everyone thinks that it won't apply to them, only to find he's turned around and "broadened" the definitions a bit. He is actually encouraging LEAs to get common criminals classed as terrorists.

I'm not American, but from what I've seen, I really don't care much for John Ashcroft.

-- james

So does that mean that 'conventional' pain killers should ease emotional pain as well?

Although, a recent Wired article says that "Morphine kills the perception of pain by limiting sensory input to the brain", so perhaps the current conventional drugs stop the pain from the rest of the body reaching the brain, as opposed to pain already internal to the brain.

On a related note, see this article [Wired]. Ugh, those "spackers" (hacker-spammers) are a nasty crowd.

This article from Wired tells us, that Napster will be using the wma-format. I dont know wma that well (being a mac user), but reading this does not make me feel safe in any way.

Who buys from spammers? Lots of folks.

Just before rolling out the dual-platform iPods, Apple was reporting that the Windows version of the iPod was selling at the same rate as the Mac version. With those rough numbers in hand, if you count on a similar conversion rate for the Music Store (I know, it's a wild ass guess), it seems that the Windows version should get at least as many customers as the Mac version.

Those who argue that Mac users are zealots are ignoring a few things. For one, Apple is slowly convincing Windows users that Apple can make great non-Mac products. Second, Apple's brand image in the youth market is extraordinarily strong. If there was ever a market dominated by youth tastes, music is it.

Reports of Apple arriving in the Windows music game too late ignore the fact that nobody else has been able to implement a Windows music service that consumers actually like. I don't think we'll see the Windows Music Store getting 20x the volume of the Mac version, but I do think it will be immediately profitable.

A quote from the 2nd page of the article:
"In a further effort to compromise new systems and add them to their arsenal, Tubul's group appears to be using its "spamvertised" sites to infect visitors with a malicious program. Recent reports in online antispam discussion groups indicate that an invisibly hosted site called miracleformen.com was attempting to install a suspicious executable file on visitors' computers using a vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser."

Re: very recent /. article

To quote Wired Magazine: JetBlue Airways confirmed on Thursday that in September 2002, it provided 5 million passenger itineraries to a defense contractor for proof-of-concept testing of a Pentagon project unrelated to airline security -- with help from the Transportation Security Administration. The contractor, Torch Concepts, then augmented that data with Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information, including income level, to develop what looks to be a study of whether passenger-profiling systems such as CAPPS II are feasible. All this in violation of Jet Blue's stated privacy policy.

wow, the same kibo of usenet fame now graces slashdot.
for those of you not familiar with one who has been once declared a "USENET Deity", here's a brief article describing the man, the myth, the legend.

I want OS 10.4 to support my Mac SE!

you can take the AQ (Autism-Spectrum Quotient) test, there is a link in my sig to a paper describing asperger syndrome and geek syndrome, the test is here and I scored 32 :-/

The whole point of this system is to decrease violence in a bar by rejecting supposedly violent people. But the list in the demo graphic also include: excessive drinking, missed payment, and other(?).

Well, I'd first like to know what qualifies as excessive drinking? Does getting sick qualify? how about stumbling? what level of breathalizer? and is it a fair level? This seems a bit subjective. I'd also like to know what the other label means.

Finally, who is going to maintain this database? If the information is incorrect or if a bouncer, bartender, or server doesnt like you, how would you go about disputing your label? Who would you go to? How could you prove your case, since this seems like a guilty until proven innocent scenerio? Suppose you undertipped the server, does that mean you "missed payment"?

Seems like the problems with the airport no-fly list are coming back in the form of a no-bar list.

HP redefined the phrase "security through obscurity" You have to be f***ing joking. HP?!?!??! http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,54297,00.ht ml

Coming to this discussion late, but what the hell...

In some of my business classes in college, we were taught about McDonald's & Burger King as a case study in marketing approaches.

• McDonald's, it seems, has a huge research budget for making sure that any new store will be in a profitable neighborhood, with adequate traffic flow & other resources in the area, so that the new store will do well.
• Burger King, on the other hand, waits for McDonald's to open up a store, then they build one next door. This may guarantee that they're never first, but it also saves the from the bother of having to keep up the research department.

The same seems to be going on here. The ubiquitous references to Apple products in movies & TV shows is very well known. However, there is a perception that this is just spontaneous -- Apple hardware just looks better than more or less any Wintel box, so of course that's what gets used for props, right? Not exactly...

Quoting from a Wired article I just read:

Garrett Beauvais, a marketing executive at Advanced Micro Devices, which makes chips for PCs, suggested that's Apple's famously vigorous product-placement efforts are the source of the plot device.

"Apple Computer outspends all other PC companies in product placement and is perhaps more active in the area than any other technology company outside of Microsoft," Beauvais wrote.

That article was from May 2002. The implication is clear: [a] the "spontaneous" placement of Apple products in all these shows is not a coincidence, and [b] it seems that Microsoft has been trying to emulate Apple's success here for a long time.

Apple is playing the McDonald's role, Microsoft is Burger King.

The only wrinkle is that McDonald's is much larger than Burger King (I'm not sure what the spread is, but it's significant), and Apple is something like 20 times smaller than Microsoft -- at least in terms of market share.

Still, it's clear what roles they're trying to follow.

The only difference between the links is that the one link gives the poster a $1 commission from Amazon and the other link Amazon keeps that $1. There's no spam or other email involved.

Spam !-> e-mail. Some of us remember Green Cards

Using /. to post surreptitious advertisements for one's own business (which is what an affiliate program is), is perhaps not spam, but it's sure a close relative.

If however, you are like most people, and you do draw a line between public and private information about yourself, then Google's innovative strategies combined with its overwhelming market share make it a privacy time bomb just waiting to explode. If Microsoft were behind Google, much of the world would be up in arms (Remember NT's supposed NSA Backdoor?) No so with Google. Strangely, perhaps because Google actually works pretty well and isn't laced with bugs that allow viruses to damage your home computer, no one makes a fuss.

In the recent years the public has sometimes been shocked to learn about some of the side effects that our technological progress has brought. Organizations combining data from multiple databases (for 'marketing' purposes) and technologies such as license plate recognition make possible a 'technical utopia' that Big Brother could only have dreamed about.

This combined with the hightened fear of terrorism and the corresponding (over-)reaction by governments has led to a information gathering infrastructure that is unique in world history. In the post 9/11 world there has been increasing pressure from the American government on organizations and companies (from your local library to European airlines) to forward all types to information to 'the authorities'. Google is most likely just one more intelligence source, though in all probablilty a highly valuable one, in the war against terrorism.

Suspicions that Google has 'ties' with the NSA was published in Slashdot (Should You Fear Google?) last Febuary. After reading some of the comments associated with that article, one begins to wonder if Goggle is just the Internet arm of the Echelon project.

While each tenticle pulling at our privacy is relatively harmless by itself, the combined affect of the multiple attacks on our personal privacy is large and disturbing. Worse still, is that we have only ourselves blame. Our very own democratic governments encourage and protect the individuals and organizations that are attempting to implement these policies. And largely because of own our ignorance and apathy, we don't raise our voices against it.

It's like comparing the public's reaction to a government proposal to mandate the installation of ID chips in its citizens, which causes a massive outcry, vs. parents desire to install the same chips in their children, because of their fear of abductions. The end result may be the same, but in the second case we did it to ourselves.

I guess the moral is that we should just be a bit more aware of what we're doing, and a bit more willing to say 'no'. While the current western decomcratic governments probably do 'have our best interests at heart', what happens when some unsavory character sells or gives this information to our enemies, or worse our government is no longer domocratic and becomes our enemy?

If however, you are like most people, and you do draw a line between public and private information about yourself, then Google's innovative strategies combined with its overwhelming market share make it a privacy time bomb just waiting to explode. If Microsoft were behind Google, much of the world would be up in arms (Remember NT's supposed NSA Backdoor?) No so with Google. Strangely, perhaps because Google actually works pretty well and isn't laced with bugs that allow viruses to damage your home computer, no one makes a fuss.

In the recent years the public has sometimes been shocked to learn about some of the side effects that our technological progress has brought. Organizations combining data from multiple databases (for 'marketing' purposes) and technologies such as license plate recognition make possible a 'technical utopia' that Big Brother could only have dreamed about.

This combined with the hightened fear of terrorism and the corresponding (over-)reaction by governments has led to a information gathering infrastructure that is unique in world history. In the post 9/11 world there has been increasing pressure from the American government on organizations and companies (from your local library to European airlines) to forward all types to information to 'the authorities'. Google is most likely just one more intelligence source, though in all probablilty a highly valuable one, in the war against terrorism.

Suspicions that Google has 'ties' with the NSA was published in Slashdot (Should You Fear Google?) last Febuary. After reading some of the comments associated with that article, one begins to wonder if Goggle is just the Internet arm of the Echelon project.

While each tenticle pulling at our privacy is relatively harmless by itself, the combined affect of the multiple attacks on our personal privacy is large and disturbing. Worse still, is that we have only ourselves blame. Our very own democratic governments encourage and protect the individuals and organizations that are attempting to implement these policies. And largely because of own our ignorance and apathy, we don't raise our voices against it.

It's like comparing the public's reaction to a government proposal to mandate the installation of ID chips in its citizens, which causes a massive outcry, vs. parents desire to install the same chips in their children, because of their fear of abductions. The end result may be the same, but in the second case we did it to ourselves.

I guess the moral is that we should just be a bit more aware of what we're doing, and a bit more willing to say 'no'. While the current western decomcratic governments probably do 'have our best interests at heart', what happens when some unsavory character sells or gives this information to our enemies, or worse our government is no longer domocratic and becomes our enemy?

1) It's not the "web", it's the "Internet" - unless you plan on making everything a bunch of HTTP servers?

2) Having a video feed, and knowing what the feed is of, are two very different things. Knowing the IP address will only be marginally helpful, especially with DHCP or PPPOE in use in *alot* of cases.

3) So, you have a picture of some guy's bedroom. It's 3 blocks from a commited crime. And...?

4) Also, remember that power corrupts... We need to ensure that the proper checks are in place before we start trusting this technology.

5) Remember TIA? Co-ordinating data from so many disparate sources is much more daunting than it seems, however sexy it sounds.

C'mon!

I find it interesting that the article fails to mention the research that is going into seeing if this is entirely feasable at all. Not only the work at MIT, but also a host of othe colleges all around like UTA and some others.

http://cms.mit.edu/games/education/

http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,59855,00.ht ml

Charter may be the first cable ISP to fight but SBC has been fighting already as shown:

here
here
and here

I wrote about the Fortune's interview of Bill Joy a couple of days ago here. But I focused my summary on his comments about the article he wrote for Wired in April 2000, "Why the future doesn't need us," in which he said that rapid advances in genetic engineering, nanotechnology and robotics (collectively known as GNR) could endanger our lives. And in this long text published by CIO Magazine, Ray Kurzweil also writes about the dangers introduced by new technologies. More specifically, he also gives his views about GNR. In his conclusion, he says that "we need to understand that these technologies are advancing on hundreds of fronts, rendering relinquishment completely ineffectual as a strategy. As uncomfortable as it may be, we have no choice but to prepare the defenses."

From the article: After some early success with shows like "24" last season...

Maybe last season but in the first series: 24's Good Guys Do Use Macs

While Bauer and most of the other agents in his unit used Macs, the traitor used a laptop made by Dell. The baddies, a group of renegade Serbs, also use Dell machines.

OTOH, if you could find a way to make an acousticly pleaing soundwave render an image, you'd have yourself a new art form, and could do all sorts of things with it.

This has been done, probably most famously by Aphex Twin. Quite interesting really.

See: The Face of Aphex

If I take a photograph of a tree and encode it into bits, those bits will always represent the content of an image, even if some stupid Baudio-like program presents those bits as though they were some other sort of media. ... If you honestly intend to listen to my image file ... then maybe we can talk about it's merits as music/line noise.

How do you explain artists such as Aphex Twin (who purposely encoded his face into a song for his listener's enjoyment)? As one who enjoys Richard D. James' music, I have to argue that listening to images as audio is a reality. And honestly in many of his songs you can't even tell the difference between his homebrewed instruments and his face. Granted his face isn't generally the most beautiful thing about his music.

Aphex Twin disagrees.

But then you might have to suffer the wrath of this executive when he discovers that the web browser is broken.

Wired Review on toilet from Toto

Toto USA

I havent really checked all problems and implication but this might work: make a clear statement that credit card companies will not consider it fraud if some moron gives his credit card number to some spamvertized herbal viagra vendor and the cc gets abused. If people would start thinking again who they actually give their data to spammers and fraud-shops would generate less revenue in the long run.

I know that this is not as simple as i laid it out, but i really think this is a starting point: have people buying spamvertized products become aware that they are doing something awfully stupid and its up to them to deal with all the mess that may come out of buying spamvertized goods. What happened to the whole "i am not sure if buying something from the internet" attitude? Have people really become so desperate because of their penis size that they will send money to just anyone?

Have 2-3 stories on the news about people who got completely ripped off after buying spamvertized products might help as well. I guess its more about educating people than to humiliate them.

For those of you who might have burned your penis on your laptop, cool it down!
If you are a mobile traveler like me, it's one less thing to pack when your toothbrush is USB powered!
Or while you are brushing your teeth, you can find time to make some noodles or whatever the hell this thing does.
And one last one to make soup with I guess.

This will make solar panels even more attractive.

This is the kind of thing we need for Invisiblity Cloaks, chameleon camouflage and Invisible Cars. Of course we still need a revolution in computing to handle the optic information but it's a start.

This is the kind of thing we need for Invisiblity Cloaks, chameleon camouflage and Invisible Cars. Of course we still need a revolution in computing to handle the optic information but it's a start.

wired's cover story this month is about the superproducers in the industry. really limited article, but worth buying. talks about the people who are trying different things and making great albums.

or just check the website here

xavii aka bob

in case anyone forgot, not only is microsoft research their neighbor, but it was also the first microsoft research center outside the us. wired has more about what you can get for $80 million.

in case anyone forgot, not only is microsoft research their neighbor, but it was also the first microsoft research center outside the us. wired has more about what you can get for $80 million.

If CAGW was paid off like the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution or if they are just a bunch of idiots generally speaking.

Since CAGW is allegedly concerned about federal dollars they'd probably REALLY shit to see my federal agency now switching over to open source (via Zope). And it's not just us, here's a whole list of federal agencies switching to CMSs powered by Open Source. CAGW better get ready with their FUD machine.

Wingnuts like Rush "I-can't-go-to-Nam-coz-I-have-a-wart-in-my-ass" Limbaugh want to imply Clark's some kind of nutcase who'll raise taxes and spend them in cockamamie time travel projects. What part of "in all of human history" don't they understand?

Oh, I forgot, they know very well what he meant. It's conscious spin.

Well, both Wired and ESPN have re-designed with pure CSS, tableless layouts. Those are pretty big names, and there are more big sites starting to follow the CSS path to.

The documentary Revolution OS explores the human side of the open source and free software movements, illuminating the behind-the-scenes story of the hackers and programmers rebelling against the corporate machine.

This 90-minute film begins with Richard Stallman's quest to create a free operating system. It then follows the movement through its two-decades-long evolution in interviews with Stallman, Linus Torvalds (creator of the open-source operating system Linux), Eric Raymond (author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar), Bruce Perens (author of the Open Source Definition), Brian Behlendorf (leader of the Apache Web server project), Michael Tiemann (founder of the first open source company) and Larry Augustin (founder of VA Linux Systems). Revolution OS also depicts the culture of the open source movement by documenting the Installfest parties where people can bring their computers to get free, expert Linux tech support; and the Refund Day protest marches, where Linux users demand reimbursement of the extra fees that get tacked onto the purchase price of new computers for pre-installed Microsoft applications.

Didn't even stop to think about the new Sinbad movie from Dreamworks either. Or IBM's General Parallel File System (GPFS) Sorry FYI

Linux Storms Hollywood

Linux in Hollywood a Star is Born

They can if they use the same material in these clothes.

The news is that they reached the 500-course mark, not that they opened up the library. That news was released yesterday.

In case you're wondering, the Wired article (printed in the Semptember issue) is here, and the September OpenCourseWare newsletter is here. At the time that it was published, OCW only offered 262 courses. I agree that MIT adding more courses to OCW isn't exactly earthshattering news, but it is a recent thing.

Some scientists say that FTL travel therefore implies time travel, or being able to travel to the future or the past.

Apparently, YOU should read the article before shooting off your mouth, eh?

DeanSpace development comunity - Website : http://DeanSpace.org
Articles: http://drupal.org/node/view/2267
Wired News http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59497,00 .html
Dan Gillmore http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/650 1101.htm
Reason Online http://www.reason.com/links/links081303.shtml
Hesie Online (german) http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-26.08.03-00 1/

His site is http://www.zeldman.com/, the book's site is http://www.zeldman.com/dwws/ and one of the sites he's built using web standards is http://www.wired.com/