Halley's Alpha Male Roundup -- 

Links to the lessons so far in her "How to Become an Alpha Male in 18 Easy Lessons":

Lesson One: Getting It -- January 3, 2003

Lesson Two: Giving It -- January 4, 2003

Lesson Three: Why Alpha Males Get Pussy Galore -- January 5, 2003

Lesson Four: Stag Films -- January 7, 2003

Lesson Five: Confidence Game -- January 12, 2003 
[Halley's Comment]

Further info on Adnan Osmani's faster browser: I spoke to Dick Ahlstrom today, the Irish Times science editor who wrote the Times piece on Adnan Osmani and his browser project for the Young Scientist Exhibition. Dick gave permission to reprint his story (the Times site is subscription only) for free here.

Dick has some programming background and an extensive science background. He said that of course the judges were concerned that the browser might appear to be doing what it was, in truth, not doing, so they brought in three additional judges,all from senior technology positions, to evaluate it. (Bernie Goldbach also has a posting here about the browser from a programmer, Fergal Byrne, who saw it running and talked to Adnan.)

Dick stressed that Adnan was not trumpeting this project at all. He warned him that he'd probably get intense media scrutiny, perhaps as intense as Irish schoolgirl Sarah Flannery did when she won the same contest with her encryption algorithm. Interestingly, Dick pointed out that this story, too, had been of modest interest until the London Times stuck it on page 1 and made a big deal out of Sarah being 1) a girl and 2)young. Then everyone picked it up and the hype began.

Personally, I don't know how kids so young deal with the voracious public appetite for every detail about them, as well as all the criticism and scrutiny, when basically they're just doing something they really like and (in the case of both Adnan and Sarah) not deliberately searching for a huge profile. While Adnan's project may or may not end up rewriting browser history, and may or may not bring him real rather than fleeting fame, it's important to remember that he's a teenager and simply submitted a project that has, so far, been given as good a going-over as professional computer scientists could give it in the weeks leading up to the competition awards night. Also see update on Wed 15th Jan here. More detailed tech update 24/1/03 here.

William Gibson has an intriguing piece on drugs, creativity, and conversations with Timothy Leary (he doesn't seem to permalink, but it's the Jan 12 entry). One observation:

As to drugs facilitating creativity, I think I’ve seen a lot of paintings, most often stacked along the walls of thrift shops, that argue against this. (Amphetamines, however, can definitely facilitate macramé.) Where are our great novels of the Sixties drug experience? Somehow, it seems, they didn’t get written, in spite of all that major facilitation.

Heh! The rest is a good read as well.