Consumers Face Tricky Maze in Guarding Privacy [New York Times: Technology]: "Some states are taking on what they considerthe most blatant lies about whether a consumer gives permission to share or sell an e-mail address and other information."
8:26:45 PM  #   your two cents []

XML spec moves ahead despite gripes. The World Wide Web Consortium advances XML 1.1 amid complaints that it is breaking the specification's backwards-compatibility in order to benefit IBM. [CNET News.com]
8:24:21 PM  #   your two cents []

Internet by Satellite [New York Times: Technology]
8:23:46 PM  #   your two cents []

The bill to lay the legal groundwork for Dublin's Digital Hub project is being discussed in the Seanad (Irish senate) today...
10:51:21 AM  #   your two cents []

Spam poses threat to privacy. The problem of spam is set to get a whole lot worse and in the office it could have a big impact on levels of employee privacy. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]
10:48:31 AM  #   your two cents []

Sir Richard Steele. "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." [Quotes of the Day]
10:47:42 AM  #   your two cents []

Ouch Dept: Boeing writes off Teledesic investment. The Boeing Company announced Wednesday that it has written off a multi-million dollar investment... [spacetoday.net]
10:47:06 AM  #   your two cents []

Printer in your pocket? HP's got it. A new technology allows business travelers to send documents from a wireless device to a networked printer. HP and RIM team up. [CNET News.com] Ahhh, ideal for industrial espionage or sneaky journalists!
10:44:52 AM  #   your two cents []

This Is Your Brain on Magnets. Neurologists at the American Neurological Association convention compare notes on the best ways to view -- and figure out -- how the brain works.  [Wired News]
10:43:22 AM  #   your two cents []

David Friedman. "The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations." [Quotes of the Day]
10:42:37 AM  #   your two cents []

The lecture last night by Nobel physicist Murray Gell-Mann was wonderful. I'll note some highlights later on as I don't have time to do so now. As noted Tuesday (with links), Dr Gell-Mann was in Dublin to give the inaugural lecture honouring the 19th century Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, who came up with the concept of the quaternion while on a canal-side walk on Oct 16 nearly 200 years ago. Every year on the date a group retraces his walk, and I joined them yesterday. We strode from Dunsink observatory on the outside of town, to the bridge in Cabra on whose side Hamilton wrote out the equation (we stopped to sing "happy birthday quaternions" at the commemorative plaque placed at the site by first Irish prime minister Eamon de Valera, a mathematician), then on into town. It was a fabulous walk on a crisp autumn day, through a field of cows and up some windy roads then along the canal, accompanied by the occasional swan -- I had no idea you could do such a thing on the canal bank for such a distance. Needless to say the by-now hungry walkers demolished sandwiches and drinks laid on at the Royal Irish Acadamy on Dawson Street, which is where we ended up before going to the lecture at Trinity.

One Galway maths prof told me this joke:

Q: What's the difference between an introverted mathematician and an extroverted mathematician?
A: An introverted mathematician looks at his shoes while he's talking to you, while an extroverted mathematician looks at your shoes while he's talking to you.

10:41:50 AM  #   your two cents []