William Gibson on his Tech Life and Latest Novel [Slashdot]

Pattern Recognition (Gibson's latest novel) has several of my favorite quotes... Here are a few:

"We have no future because our present is too volatile. We have only risk management. The spinning of a given moment's scenarios."

"Souls can't move that quickly, and are left behind, and must be awaited, upon arrival, like lost luggage." (on Jet Lag)

"If it's that small a world, it starts to smell funny." 

"Their Boy-Girl Lego wouldn't click." (On the relation between a man and a woman 

8:46:33 PM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []   

Just read a report on Venezuela by a well-known US-based investment firm. Some of the things it says are interesting, but I knew them already, for example, that the opposition is losing momentum (hey, I predicted that in this blog!). Others are controversial, for example that Chávez has a good chance of winning the 2006, while he has support now, it's way too early to call. But the numbers did impress me: 33% pro-Chávez, 25% pro-opposition, 43% ni-ni's (neither one nor the other!). My group is winning! Far out! Of course, this is not good news, we have to wait until a new opposition (this time with leaders, please) wins the hearts and minds of that group (without losing the pro-opp group) in order to see a real threat for the chavismo. Bold Prediction: Looking at Chávez history is pretty obvious this new opposition will come from his own camp...

The report also states clearly that there is little chance of a recall vote against Chávez. The most probable scenario is that the Electoral body will ask people to go and corroborate that they signed, at that point the international observers will complaint and leave the country. And that, my friends, is the reason why Chávez has attacked them and the US (well, mostly Bush) in his recent speeches.

I thought the right strategy for Chávez was to have the electoral council disqualified half and the Supreme Court the other half in such a way that the two halves add up to enough signatures to deny the petition. That way no single body is guilty... But what do I know?

7:02:44 PM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []   

Bubble bursting for Napster. Analysts have predicted multiple casualties in the online music business by year end. Napster 2.0 may be heading for the endangered species list. By Eric Bangeman. [Ars Technica]

Smiles fade at Napster

MUSIC SERVICE IS LOSING MONEY AND EXECUTIVES
But in the days leading up to Napster's re-launch in late October, HP suddenly -- and without explanation -- returned Napster's $250,000 check and canceled the agreement to install a link to Napster's online music service on its computers. Worse, in January HP announced a surprise partnership with Napster rival Apple Computer to feature the iTunes Music store on HP computers and sell Hewlett-Packard branded iPod music players.
The reality of reincarnating the onetime bete noir of the music industry into a legitimate music service proved more sobering. Napster lost $15 million in its first two months of operation. And the most recent sales data reported to two of the major music labels shows Napster with an estimated 12 percent share of the download market, compared to Apple's 56 percent. Analysts estimate Napster's market share at 15 percent to 20 percent.
That means Napster has attracted about 90,000 subscribers in its first two months -- ranking it fourth, behind RealNetworks' Rhapsody service, America Online's MusicNet and MusicMatch.

This happens to the biggest spender and the best brand (presumably) of the competing WMA players... Will people still say WMA will prevail? of course, Will it happen? Not a chance...

5:21:16 PM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []   

Yikes, Gibson's dad is a nut case. [John Robb's Weblog]

One of the most traumatic experiences of my life was visiting the Auschtwitz Prison Camp. I did that in my previous life as a mathematician. My main co-authors were polish from Krakow (beautiful city) and very near the camp. I have to say the visit is a must, but it is as heart wrenching as anything you can think of. It's like having a parent or a child die. My point is that I doubt very much these nuts could say those things when confronted to the rooms full of hair, used shoes, empty suitcases and so on... How can you deny something that is right in front of your eyes? My conclusion is that you have to be a monster without feeling to think things like that in front of so much evidence...

The Jewish neighborhood in Krakow provides another look at the cruelty performed by the Nazis to the jews in Poland. There is a wall made of pieces of headstone from tombs, and the story is that the stones were used by the Nazis to build roads (built by jews in forced labor) without removing the bodies from the ground. Can you imagine the feeling of the workers? knowing that their loved ones were now buried without any way to finding where? I can, and it still makes me cry...

11:57:44 AM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []