Wednesday, July 17, 2002

With False Numbers, Data Crunchers Try to Mine the Truth. Researchers have devised software that seeks to get around people who lie about their age and their salary. By Anne Eisenberg. [New York Times: Technology] This is a good idea, but not for the applications the article suggests. It's very unlikely that average Web users will trust Web sites and understand the technique enough to change their ways and enter correct data. Also, it would be interesting to know if wrong answers are entered to protect privacy, or just as a rude gesture (use your visual imagination) signifying "None of your business!" However, there are other potentially valuable applications for the technique. A data collector may want to provide information to a third party (for example, medical data) without betraying the confidence of the people whose data it holds. If implemented with suitable legal protections and an audit trail, the technique could help solve otherwise conflicting needs for privacy and knowledge. 8:27:19 PM

"Meanwhile the general stagnation in the software industry, which is the core the western economy now, is a huge problem, and people aren't even talking about it. We're stuck behind a horribly inefficient system for trying out new ideas. A Hollywood movie gets much more funding than a breakthrough software idea. That seems out of whack to me. The venture capital industry doesn't get money into the hands of the unemployed technologists in Silicon Valley. We could do so much better than we are doing. There are so many people who now would appreciate a good job with a nice steady salary and a health plan. OK, the VCs don't want to make that kind of investment. Who does??" [Scripting News] Two comments: Unemployed technologists with great ideas are not just (most?) in SV The typical fast-growth-fast-exit funding model only works -- if it does -- for low-hanging fruit. What about ideas that need long nurturing with relatively small amounts of funding? Those are the real seeds of revolution. 7:45:59 PM

Since I downloaded my new music to my iPod, I've been a few times to the gym, and I flew to SLC and back. My listening favorite so far is Niafunké by Ali Farka Toure, followed by Stardust by Ron Carter. the others are good too, but these just ask for repeated listening. Thanks, iPod builders. Now if only you provided AAC! I used to work with some of the creators of AAC, and since then MP3 has been for me just a stopgap. 7:16:57 PM