Friday, February 28, 2003

We're Number Two! (Associated Press) Ranking the most tech-ready countries: No, US isn't No. 1 Which nation is best at putting information and communications technology to use? According to results of a new study by the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, and other participants, it's Finland. The study, designed to help governments craft policies to compete on the global market, rated 82 nations on 64 criteria related to technology use by individuals, businesses, and governments. The top 10 tech-ready countries: 1. Finland 2. US 3. Singapore 4. Sweden 5. Iceland 6. Canada 7. Britain 8. Denmark 9. Taiwan 10. Germany 4:43:51 PM    comment [] Mister Rogers Meets Koko (Tom Junod) ONCE UPON A TIME, a long time ago, a man took off his jacket and put on a sweater. Then he took off his shoes and put on a pair of sneakers. His name was Fred Rogers. He was starting a television program, aimed at children, called Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. He had been on television before, but only as the voices and movements of puppets, on a program called The Children's Corner. Now he was stepping in front of the camera as Mister Rogers, and he wanted to do things right, and whatever he did right, he wanted to repeat. And so, once upon a time, Fred Rogers took off his jacket and put on a sweater his mother had made him, a cardigan with a zipper. The he took off his shoes and put on a pair of navy-blue canvas boating sneakers. He did the same thing the next day, and then the next...until he had done the same things, those things, 865 times, at the beginning of the 865 television programs, over a span of thirty-one years. The first time I met Mister Rogers, he told me a story of how deeply his simple gestures had been felt, and received. He had just come back from visiting Koko, the gorilla who has learned - or who has been taught - American Sign Language. Koko watches television. Koko watches Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and when Mister Rogers, in his sweater and sneakers, entered the place where she lives, Koko immediately folded him in her long, black arms, as though he were a child, and then ... "She took my shoes off, Tom," Mister Rogers said. (Source: "Can You Say ... Hero?", Esquire) 2:08:13 PM    comment [] Microsoft Digital Rights Management Scheme (Brett Glass) Microsoft has just announced that it is incorporating DRM into all of its products -- including the next versions of MS Office and Internet Explorer. You've posted an item mentioning the chilling effect that such measures could have on corporate whistleblowers. But there's another potentially devastating effect that hasn't been mentioned yet: The DRM could, via a loophole in the DoJ consent decree, allow Microsoft to withhold information about file formats and APIs from other companies which are attempting to create compatible or competitive products. See http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,906344,00.asp for more. (via interesting people) 12:55:33 PM    comment []

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