December 2007
47 posts
Should Web Giants Let Startups Use the Information... →
Get ready for open data advocacy.
“Feel free to automate the cleaning of my laundry and the removal of my trash. I...”
– Social Networks: Stop Designing Out The Fun | mechanical robot fish
Huckabee's Foreign Policy Blunders
According to this NYTimes article, Mike Huckabee, the Creationist Babtist minister turned Presidential hopeful, has made a number of recent errors. In the wake of the assasination of Benazir Bhutto, Huckabee has done the following: Claimed that Pakistanis make up the largest, non-hispanic illegal immigrant population. DHS says far more come from the Phillipines, Korea, China and Vietnam. Stated...
China Finds Eager Allies for Olympic Security →
I am quickly losing all optimism that the 21st Century will not see an enormous increase in governments’ ability to control their populations. In countries which lack the freedoms we’ve come to associate with modernity, this is a terrifying, depressing thought.
WatchThe effort which went into the XO Machine amazes me every time.
“Doubts about whether poor, rural children really can benefit from quirky little...”
– ‘One Laptop’ a hit in Peruvian village - CNN.com
If Ads are Truly Content, Treat Them As Such
Google, Facebook and other behemoths of online advertising insist adverts are content that can be useful to people. If that is the case, they need to start treating them as such. For example, on Facebook I often pay no heed to the ads on the left hand of the page until I am waiting for the next page to load. In that split second I may see something which piques my interest, but when I hit the...
The War On Paultards: Ron Paul A Hypocritical... →
Tim Russert is my new hero.
Facebook Chat
Facebook needs to implement a chat service similar to GMail Chat.
“Mitt Romney is running for President and proudly refuses to say if he would obey...”
– Glenn Greenwald - Political Blogs and Opinions - Salon
“This pre-screening is largely to ensure that we haven’t engaged in anything...”
– Jet Lagged - Air Travel - Opinion - New York Times Blog
NYTimes Magazine's Year in Ideas →
Fascinating list. Which are your favorites? How many had you heard of before?
Fact of the Day
In 2003, copper cost 65 cents per pound. This October, it was averaging $3.61.
Book Review: The Big Switch
Next month, Nick Carr’s new book, The Big Switch will be published in which he compares the centralization of electricity production to the current “cloud computing” phenomenon. Carr is one of my favorite voices in the technology field and he was kind enough to send me an advance copy of his book. In a way which few do well, Carr uses history to understand the ramifications of important trends...
“So that is why I decided to leave Facebook. I don’t like where it’s...”
– Andrew Brown: Facebook is like Hotel California … | Technology | The Guardian
E.P.A. Says 17 States Can’t Set Emission Rules for... →
Regardless of the environmental ramifications (which are perhaps more important), I think the political theory behind this decision is fascinating. With individual cities and states setting laws and regulations which broad importance, the power of nation-states is questionable in the 21st Century. However, the superiority of the Federal Government is exerted here.
FREE
I’m watching a lecture by the editor in chief of Wired Magazine and author of “The Long Tail” about his next book, FREE. FREE will be about the radical price of 0. All of it is interesting but I particularly found a certain tidbit interesting: Why does Wired Magazine, which costs $100/subscription/year to produce only cost $10 to subscribe? Obviously ads make up the difference,...
Inside the CIA's notorious "black sites" →
Salon has an exclusive about the secret rendition sites the CIA operates. It is horrifying stuff.
The Whale Hunt / A storytelling experiment / by... →
This guy took a photo every 5 minutes and then put it together in a really cool site to tell his story. Be sure to click the whale at the top and change the constraints.
Sciencedebate 2008 →
Sign the petition for a science-based Presidential election debate. I want to see Mike Huckabee take the stage and explain why he doesn’t think evolution is verifiable.
“In each incident, Facebook pushed the boundaries of privacy a bit further and,...”
– apophenia: Facebook’s “opt-out” precedent
Al Gore's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech →
Magisterial
Radiohead - In Rainbows - Music - New York Times →
Good piece on Radiohead’s “Pay What You Want for this Album” experiment.
“IN the 2000 election, Al Gore, then the vice president, was derided by opponents...”
– The Team That Put the Net in Orbit - New York Times
“The problem with “Web 2.0,” as a concept, is that it constrains...”
– Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog: Through the Kindle window
The Dangerous Wealth of the Ivy League →
There is a growing disparity between the dozen top schools and the rest.
“Thanks to the global commodities boom of the past few years, sub-Saharan...”
– Can Greed Save Africa?
Writing to Organize My Ideas on Technological...
Lately I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about how technology affects society, politics and the economy. Is technological advance inherently beneficial? Inherently dangerous? Is it inherently anything? I’ve long been a promoter of the benefits of technology, but have also realized it has potentially dangerous uses. Take Internet video: myriad lectures are available on YouTube or...
Cover Browser for Wired Magazine →
"Information Access in a Networked World" →
danah boyd is one of the foremost experts on teenage digital culture. Of particular interest to Alex, this article is about how today’s teens learn.
Population & Urbanization
The world’s population is 50% urban. 1.3 million people move to cities every week. However, when people move to cities, their birth rates drop below the regeneration rate of 2 children/couple. In other words, urbanization will lead to diminishing populations. [Source]
'My iPod has made me antisocial' →
Personally, I’ve had a completely different experience. The ease of discovery and consumption of digital music has made me more social. Shared interest in music is an important point of conversation and concerts are always a social event. My iPod precipitated my interest in music.
“We continue to treat marijuana as a major threat to public health, even though...”
– How America Lost the War on Drugs : Rolling Stone
"The most ambitious facebook experiment ever..."
So, this new group “6 Degrees of Separation” is spreading on Facebook. It has nearly 100,000 members who are willing to “test” the hypothesis that everyone in the world is within 6 personal connections of each other. However, this “ambitious experiment” is absolutely witless. It is a social network site. Of course everyone is connected. How does one become a...
Technology Review: China disputes report calling... →
McAfee research believes China is responsible for 80% of cyber-attacks.
Neat Concept:
Reading my professor’s book, I came across “path dependence” which is the idea that as the use of a certain technology spreads, the switching cost increases due to: 1. Large ratio of fixed to marginal costs, 2. Large learning curves, and/or 3. Network effects A prime example is the QWERTY keyboard. The distribution of keys on the keyboard you are currently using was designed...
“In fact, technology shouldn’t be such a laughing matter.”
– Great Op-Ed about why we shouldn’t excuse technology ignorance.
For the 2008 Race, Google Is a Crucial... →
What I thought might be an interesting article with its start comparing Google today to Ford of yesterday, turned into another mainstream-media attack at their rivals.