John Naughton's not sure about his anti-melanoma panama hat. I rather like it -- very jaunty! I am just old enough to have straddled an era when the older men -- eg grandfathers -- of my childhood all wore hats when going out in public. Grandpa Lillington's were greyish wool felt with little tiny feathers on one side of the hatband. I don't remember my dad ever wearing one, though.
1:14:28 PM  #   your two cents []

The Death of MIT's Media Lab?
12:45:20 PM  #   your two cents []

 Can I just tell you what a stunning day it is here in Dublin, the third in a row? Apparently the jet stream has done a big curvy snake and is pushing weather that usually is over the Mediterranean up over us instead. So they're chillin' in Cannes, and across Ireland, we're going about in summer clothes. We had record sunshine in March and bet it will be the same for April. Best part is, because the Irish Times business section is smallish today (Easter weekend), I got a de facto second week off and didn't need to write anything, so I am out into the sun now, and off to have a back garden bottle of wine with a pal. And... William Gibson is in town, folks, hanging' in Dublin for the weekend and, I hope, enjoying our unusual heat. I am looking forward to interviewing him Tuesday morning -- cool! 
12:34:46 PM  #   your two cents []

The paradox of privacy. CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos explains why privacy in the electronic age has become a massive, intractable paradox. [CNET News.com]
12:28:40 PM  #   your two cents []

Genderplay in Videogames [Slashdot]
12:28:16 PM  #   your two cents []

  Oh my. Match the male bloggers to their, er, member-ship. Guys: Too Much Information!

12:27:18 PM  #   your two cents []

WiFi for the rebuilt Iraq. Various WiFi vendors are pitching the Feds on rebuilding the Iraqi communications infrastructure with wireless Internet connections. Link [Boing Boing Blog]
12:24:26 PM  #   your two cents []

Danny O'Brien in Oblomovka, from when he does get some typing done [grin!]: An electronic marshall information plan.

The Humanity Libraries Project is the sort of resource we were looking for after we came back from Kaindu in Africa in 2001: freely redistributable practical information for developing countries.

In order to achieve broad public participation to the pressing global issues, we propose that core UN knowledge should be released in "copyleft" in standard formats. Then they can be bundled on low cost cd-roms or central servers in each country. Copyleft would mean that UN agencies retain copyrights, and control over the commercial book sales. But that at the same time free use and electronic dissemination is allowed for non-commercial purposes without the actual inefficient centralized copyright control.

Most of the freed books look very NGO'ish, but it's a start. You can send off for a cheap CD containing 160,000 pages to redistribute in your country. (via memepool)

12:22:56 PM  #   your two cents []

Homeland Security Dept. fills privacy post -- with the former "privacy officer" of Internet advertising giant DoubleClick. Good god. Dan Gillmor's eJournal points to the story in the Washington Post. Dan gives some fair commentary.
12:20:18 PM  #   your two cents []

The end of civilization. The sacking of Iraq's museums is like a "lobotomy" of an entire culture, say art experts. And they warned the Pentagon repeatedly of this potential catastrophe months before the war. [Salon.com]
12:10:16 PM  #   your two cents []

Danny O'Brien demonstrates his New Man side, but thank goodness little Ada can't yet read...

12:09:44 PM  #   your two cents []

PC World: Microsoft Research Offers Peek at Future. "Researchers showed off some of those technologies--it's much too early to call them products--at an in-house mini-trade show Wednesday at Microsoft's Mountain View, California, campus. Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, reported on the organization's current projects." [Tomalak's Realm]
12:05:34 PM  #   your two cents []

Samuel Butler. "Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well." [Quotes of the Day]
12:04:33 PM  #   your two cents []

Nokia Tempers Positive Report With a Warning. Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, keeps finding ways to sail through the stormy weather in its industry with surprisingly little damage. [New York Times: Technology]
12:03:27 PM  #   your two cents []

Sir John Stevens, Metropolitan Police Commissioner: "My inquiries have highlighted collusion, ranging from the wilful failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the withholding of intelligence and evidence, through to the extreme of agents being involved in murder."

For those outside Ireland and the UK, the Stevens Report is a shocking confirmation this week that the British army and the Northern Irish police force colluded with Protestant paramilitaries to murder both innocent Catholics in Northern Ireland, as well as select strategic targets. The 3,000-page Stevens Report, produced by the senior level police in the UK, backs the general conclusions of the similar John Stalker report into these issues over a decade ago, which was buried by the British government of the time. From the Guardian: Ministers may be questioned. Cover-up into security force collusion with murders in Northern Ireland may have reached government ministers. [Guardian Unlimited]. Even the very conservative and often anti-Irish British Telegraph newspaper expresses horror at the findings. The documentation assembled in the creation of the report apparently weighs 4.1 tons, says the Telegraph, with almost 10,000 statements taken and 16,000 exhibits seized. There have been 144 arrests and 94 convictions so far.

12:01:39 PM  #   your two cents []