If you do want to run a discussion group, remember this:  If a poster is out of line, bar them from posting, let them say it on their own weblog, against their name.  Don't let people post under fake names just to be able to attack a person without consequence.  If they do that, delete their post.  It isn't part of the public record.  If they cared strongly enough about their statement they would post it along with their name.

Also, if people come out left field, engage them.  Make them qualify their statements.  Don't let them go on and on with wild unsupported statements. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

10:10:15 PM    

Technology: Pearl the Robot Makes Life Easier for Elderly. 13:52 ET - Reuters [NewsBlip.com]

Wow. I'm glad to see that my earlier entry is a reality in some ways already. Pearl rolls around and has large type that is easy to read, reminding people of their schedules and appointments. Fantastic.

9:50:50 PM    

Dog collars cut parasitic infection in children [New Scientist]

The use of insecticide impregnated collars on dogs in an area cuts the rate of children's infections by almost half. Fantastic. This kind of preventative treatment is what we need to fight disease around the world. Rather than having to treat humans with expensive drugs that Third World nations cannot afford, the collars, which run for $10 each retail, would make for a far cheaper solution. I imagine that the Red Cross could probably get adeal on that.

9:43:53 PM    

We're just about at the tipping point for lawyer-bloggers. I'm starting to get a sense that if we have a legal question that's appropriate to ask in public, it's likely one of the lawyers will answer it, at weblog-speed, which is fast. They also write well. Here's a good example. "The Bronx is where I spent a great deal of the formative years in my professional life; it is a place apart in a lot of ways, a little banana republic in New York City." Hey I grew up in the Bronx too. It is like a banana republic, but I've never been to the courthouse. He tells a good story. I feel a kinship for the kind of lawyer who writes in public. Maybe this is a mistake? ";->" [Scripting News]

This is a very goood sign, as I think that the Law is an area that could benefit greatly from having blogs. Given the low cost of most blogging software, this is another market that could take off... What if a State Bar association decided to do womthing akinto that Salon just did, offering blogs for members?

10:25:18 AM    

A Chatty Doll of a Different Kind. New York Times Aug 1 2002 2:56AM ET... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

New breed of doll that has bulit in voice recognition, speech synthysis, and a camera that is tied  to a database of images that the can be taught to recognize.

By next year, he said, Cindy will be able to read Japanese, a notable addition to her current library of basic words in French, Spanish, German and Italian. And as processing power increases over time, Mr. Del Principe said, he anticipates creating dolls that can read sentences and recognize faces.

Now, imagine that you hook that tech to a self propelled bot that has a WiFi connection to your network, in addition to local storage of it's own, now you've got a self propelled doll that can remind you of your schedule, where you left something, stream audio, take dictation, remind you of your budget, VOIP phone calls, man, just about anything. To coin a term, a Botler for your home. Oops, some folks have already used that term.

9:28:18 AM    

Four articles about television on The New York Times today:

TV Magic, Made More Magical Still. Imagine a gizmo so amazing that everyone who bought it turned into an evangelical fanatic, extolling its virtues to anyone within earshot. Such a machine exists. By David Pogue.

Pouge loves of life with a DVR.

The Desktop Computer as Live-TV Recorder. A PC-based personal video recorder, which is much less expensive than TiVo, can completely change your television viewing habits. By Neil Mcmanus.

Mcmanus cheaps out and plays with PC based DVRs.

TV's That Reduce Cable Clutter for Xbox Aficionados. A new line of televisions from RCA may help game players reduce the snarl of dusty wires behind the set. These 11 new models have a special connection, the RCA VPort, that allows Microsoft Xbox owners to plug in with a single cable rather than three. By Ian Austen.

New TV's that work directly with your Xbox. Oh, you don't have an Xbox? Me neither. Small market and I wish them luck. 

Skipping Commercials? Not So Fast.. TV executives are positively hysterical about the prospect of viewers skipping ads using digital video recorders, and they're contemplating solutions some of them are scary. By David Pogue.

Pouge again, this time warning that commercial skipping will be the end of TV as we know it, and maybe not for the better. I still maintain that if I have to record the commercials aloing with the shows, that's the same as watching them, since I'm losing programming time to store the things. Then again, I was a geekbaby and would program my VCR to record Robotech every morning from 7:00 AM to 7:30AM, but I had it skip the commercials. It cut off and on partway into each commercial break, insuring that if the show started late, I'd have a buffer on either end. As I said, geekbaby.

5:56:49 AM    

When Dreamcasts attack. The Register Aug 1 2002 3:06AM ET... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

These guys have come up with a way to get use a Dreamcast as a means getting into a corporate network: Social engineer your way into the building and plant it. The DC then "phones home" and you are in. Since it look slike a toy, not a malicious hacking system, folks might not suspect anything until it is too late (que evil laugh).

5:18:45 AM    

Innovate Away, Sonicblue!.

Sonicblue Revenue Up 80 Percent

"The consumer-electronics maker meets analyst earnings expectations, reporting that second-quarter revenue increased 80 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago." [CNET News.com]

See - it's true. "Those who can, innovate. Those who can't, sue." (As noted earlier today.)

I'm going to have to order another ReplayTV now, just to show my support....  ;-)

[The Shifted Librarian]

I was talking to friend tonight about how there are three shows on this friday that he wants to tape: Monk, Farscape, and the Comedy Central Rollins special: Up For It. THe problem is that they are all on at the same time. He wanted to know if there was a TIVO/Replay device that could tape all three at once. I told him, unfortunately, no, that you would need multiple units in order to do that.

12:13:09 AM