This is an important development and might be kept in mind by Irish activists eyeing the govt's proposed data retention bill: Bills: Down With Citizen Database. A flurry of legislation seeking to ban or curtail the Total Information Awareness program -- whose goal is to develop ways to track patterns in databases of Americans' private info -- hits Capitol Hill. Privacy advocates cheer.  [Wired News]
1:30:24 PM  #   your two cents []

TV squeezes out the net. Online: The crucial role of the internet in shaping the future of public service communications is being ignored, argues Steve Bowbrick. [Guardian Unlimited]
1:29:03 PM  #   your two cents []

This Is Your Deep Link on P2P. A search firm in Denmark, caught in a legal tug-of-war over so-called deep linking, is turning to a file-sharing system in an attempt to avoid further confrontations. [Wired News]
1:28:38 PM  #   your two cents []

Check out the Ireland.com weathercam (that link at the top of my right-hand column). You can see the new Dublin spire monument going up -- it's that gleaming silver line in the center background. What's cool is it can be seen at night on the weathercam as well, as it seems to pick up and reflect the ambient street light. I think this is going to look really amazing when its done, at over 300 feet high.
11:45:56 AM  #   your two cents []

I am thinking of (and actually, getting quite pathetically excited about) getting the new, little 12" Apple G4 laptop. Seems to have lots packed in for the price, it's small, which is important to me, and if I get an Airport, I can then network my PC desktop and the laptop (and I'll at last try doing a Linux installation on my old PII laptop). Anyone have opinions on the practicalities of a bi-cultural life ( Apple/Mac?). I'm one of those who has switched between Macs and PCs a couple of times so while I am relatively unfamiliar with OSX, I am quite familiar with being a Machead. I've read the press but am curious if anyone out there leads this particular geek lifestyle and has some insights into its delights/aggravations... email me or add a comment!
11:38:59 AM  #   your two cents []

Spam fighters to gather at MIT. [InfoWorld: Top News]
11:04:01 AM  #   your two cents []

Military worried about Web leaks. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warns in a directive sent to military units that too much unclassified but worrisome material is popping up on the Web. [CNET News.com]
11:03:14 AM  #   your two cents []

This is part of my weekly Irish Times column today on the excellent, now-annual 'E-Cities Report' from a team headed by Iona chairman Chris Horn:

Dublin has now slumped to second-last position in a list of potential "e-cities" when benchmarked against 13 cities of similar ambition, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce's e-city working group revealed this week...

...The only city to rank lower than Dublin was Prague. We come in just behind Dubai and Tel Aviv. And we trail all the other European cities evaluated: Copenhagen, London, Helsinki, even Milan - all cities in countries whose rate of economic growth we have trumped for years.

To say the results this year are worrying is tepid. They aren't even, in that favourite cliché of column-writers, "a wake-up call". Quite simply, they are downright scandalous. For this State and this city, full of possibility in this area only a few years ago, this report is a tale of good opportunities squandered. We did once have a very good shot at being a model state in this regard, but dithering has led to a state of digital entropy that grows more difficult to redress with each passing month.

You can read the full column for free here, and download the full report and recommendations  here. As the report benchmarks Dublin against cities like London, Helsinki, San Jose, Milan, Copenhagen, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, it might be of interest to people from those regions, too (BTW San Jose is surprisingly low in the rankings -- a poorer showing than Washington).

10:42:02 AM  #   your two cents []

Signs you've been in Dublin too long:

• You have no idea where Ballydehob is.
• You see a member of Westlife on Grafton Street and find it hard to get excited about it.
• The countryside makes you nervous.
• Somebody speaks to you on the DART and you freak out thinking they are a stalker.
• American tourists no longer annoy you.

And there's more for Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Monaghan and a special surprise county here.

10:27:45 AM  #   your two cents []

 Memories are so beautiful, and yet...: Bill Cosby hawks the Texas Instruments home computer, Isaac Asimov shills for Radio Shack, William Shatner pushes the Commodore VIC-20. And, buy a 15 megabyte hard drive from Radio Shack for only $2,495. YES! They're retro computer ads, archived on the RetroCrush website (thanks, Z!).
10:11:41 AM  #   your two cents []

Senators want to block government data mining. Privacy issues raised [InfoWorld: Top News]
9:20:40 AM  #   your two cents []

This Biker Brakes for Penguins. Doug Stoup is no stranger to Antarctica. He's run marathons, climbed mountains and snowboarded across its snowy terrain. Now he wants to ride a custom-built 'ice bike' to the South Pole. [Wired News]
9:19:57 AM  #   your two cents []

2 From Europe Make Brazil Phone Deal. Telefónica of Spain and Portugal Telecom said on Thursday that they would acquire the Brazilian mobile phone operator Tele Centro Oeste Participações. [New York Times: Technology]
9:19:04 AM  #   your two cents []

Microsoft Reverses on Dividends. Microsoft surprises Wall Street by announcing a first-ever dividend payment. Ralph Nader, who criticized the company for its cash-hoarding ways, calls it a tiny step in the right direction.  [Wired News]
9:17:42 AM  #   your two cents []

 Great white faces its own crisis. "Just as big cat numbers provide a clue to the diversity of life in the forests and savannahs, shark numbers provide a snapshot of life in the deep. 'Sharks are one of the best natural barometers to indicate the health of our seas and oceans. If sharks do not exist it spells bad news,' said Ian Fergusson, of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature." [Guardian Unlimited]
9:14:06 AM  #   your two cents []

ACLU finds technology is eroding privacy. "Surveillance society" cited [InfoWorld: Top News]
9:13:13 AM  #   your two cents []

Origin of Bird Flight Explained "Although these animals appear to fly up into trees, he found on closer inspection that in many cases they were actually running up--legs bent and body pitched toward the tree--while flapping their wings. Subsequent research revealed that wing flapping assists in this vertical running by sticking the bird to the side of the tree, much as a spoiler helps to press a race car to a track." [Scientific American]
9:12:31 AM  #   your two cents []

Rock 'em, sock 'em PC makers continue to duke it out. Some good news at last for PC maufacturers though: HP wrestles top spot back from Dell. Hewlett-Packard regains its position as the world's largest PC maker in the fourth quarter, while the industry overall saw shipments increase in the quarter and in 2002 as a whole. [CNET News.com]
9:12:12 AM  #   your two cents []

Mogens Jallberg. "In democracy its your vote that counts.; In feudalism its your count that votes." [Quotes of the Day]
9:10:04 AM  #   your two cents []

Cool! Rebel librarians!: Librarians Split on Sharing Info. A requirement in the Patriot Act that requires public libraries to forfeit to law enforcement patrons' book-borrowing and Internet-surfing information has divided librarians into two camps: those who go along and those who resist. [Wired News]
9:08:43 AM  #   your two cents []