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Monday, February 17, 2003 |
A couple of days ago I pointed to Andrew King's new book on website optimization. Here's the official site for the book. I sure wish more HTML'ers would read this book before posting stuff on the Web. This is a must read for anyone who's using Microsoft FrontPage, too, just so you realize just how bad that tool is making you look (and how to fix its many sins). [The Scobleizer Weblog]
6:56:47 PM 
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MPORTANT NOTICE:
K-MART AND WAL-MART STORES WILL BE CLOSED IN IRAQ.
THEY WILL BE REPLACED WITH TARGETS.
Yeah it is stupid, but still.. from Jerry Pournelle.
6:55:48 PM
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Don't shoot, we're Republicans!.
Fifty years ago today, the Willie D as the Porter was nicknamed, accidentally fired a live torpedo at the battleship Iowa during a practice exercise. As if this wern't bad enough, the Iowa was carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the time, along with Secretary of State, Cordell Hull and all of the country's WWII military brass. They were headed for the Big Three Conference in Tehran, where Roosevelt was to meet Stalin and Churchill. Had the Porter's torpedo struck the Iowa at the aiming pointy, the last 50 years of world history might have been quite different.
Via Jerry Pournelle, Don't shoot, we're Republicans!
Nothing much to add here, other than it's an amusing story and I'm finding it fun to think about what would have happened had the torpedo actually struck the Iowa. I don't think much would have happened in the long run—FDR would have most likely survived, been transported to another ship and still made Tehran, but still, there was that slight chance he would have been killed.
Even so, I don't think the outcome of the war would have been that much different; Truman still had to take over from FDR before the war was over. [The Boston Diaries]
6:42:00 PM
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The Net as Pet Nanny.
"AlphaOmegaSoft's iSeePet lets you check on your dog or cat via the Internet. The iSeePet machine has a built-in network camera, which allows pet owners to view a real-time video of the pet through the company Web site. The site features a call button that, when activated, triggers a little jingle to summon your pet to his bowl. The iSeePet feeding unit pours a set amount of pet food -- snack- or meal-sized portions -- that you choose. Pressing 'A' will eliver a small amount of food, while 'B' will release a meal.
ISeePet rquires Windows 98/Me/2000 Professional/XP Home Edition and Internet Explorer 5.5 or greater. Pricing has yet to be determined." [Laptop, p. 68 - the article isn't available online]
Of course, the next version should have a video screen on it so your pet can see you, too. ;-) [The Shifted Librarian]
6:36:30 PM
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The meaning of search
Looking at the Google acquisition of Pyra (Blogger). There is a very important barrier between data and making it meaningful. The Google API is a very powerful instrument for shaping searches from various perspectives. Likewise, remember when the company was criticized for introducing its automated news gathering service -- "no editors! God forbid," the press cawed.
The acquisition of Blogger gives Google a channel to put its automated searching capabilities into people's hands in a very meaningful way. This can be applied in a variety of markets, including the enterprise, but also raises Google's potential to reshape the Net by focusing on how links are made and managed.
UPDATE: Evan Williams doesn't explain much about what will happen in his Bloogleplications posting about selling Pyra, but I'll guarantee this is the basic idea after hearing the questions Sergey Brin was asking at lunch during Supernova.
Consider Autonomy, another data-mining/search player, just announced its collaboration with Hutchison's 3G efforts. Though it has been primarily aimed at the enterprise, Autonomy is using its beachhead with carriers to expand into commercial search/data delivery:
"Due to the display and bandwidth requirements of mobile phones and ...handheld devices, Hutchison 3G needed a solution that could deliver highly relevant information in real-time to their subscribers," said Dr. Mike Lynch, CEO and co-founder of Autonomy. "Autonomy will provide a scaleable infrastructure that automatically links related information as it becomes available."
Context, context, context. It's what media has done for us and that we're now taking on ourselves. The question is whether Blogger is the right channel. The Blogger API is a good start, but there is a much wider range of media than text that needs integrating. AudBlog, which was demo'd during the Live from the Blogoshere event deals with capturing phoned-in sound, but there are a wide range of media types, from MIDI files created by sound engineers and music, to pictures, video and streams (vs. downloadable files).
We're going to see a ton of activity around various data formats, a metaBlogger API, XML-RPC, Jabber and many other hooks, a veritable media scaffolding being built for a new mode of expression. Get ready for a fast ride and keep a level head. [RatcliffeBlog: Business, Technology & Investing]
6:33:49 PM
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CNN doctors the news. Dan Hon has done an excellent analysis of CNN's doctoring of the transcript of Hans Blix' report to the U.N. Friday.
After grabbing the text from the two transcripts, correcting for where the BBC inserted a whole bunch of whitespace, there it was. A count in Word says that there's 866 words in one version that aren't in the other. At all. And they're, variously, about Iraqi moves towards compliance and partial refutation of the evidence presented by Powell to the UNSC. Get that. CNN deliberately left out the things Blix said about Iraq complying with the UN resolution, and the parts where he refutes Colin Powell's evidence from the week before. Look for yourself. BBC's full version is here and CNN's fake version is here. [Ming the Mechanic]
5:33:37 PM
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Anti-Gravity in the U.K.. Here's a wild story that might possibly shed some light on why the U.K. and Australia are so dogged in their support for the U.S. war plans, for no obvious good reason. Anti-gravity. Apparently both the U.K. and Australia are involved in a very hush-hush anti-gravity project with the U.S., and might have been promised that they can have the technology too, if they play nicely enough. Doesn't sound all crazy to me. There must be something of that magnitude at play, for those governments to risk everything, and go against the very stong opinions of their populations in backing a war that doesn't have a reason. [Ming the Mechanic]
5:32:51 PM
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A New Kind of Light.
Today, we'll look at the replacement of the existing light bulbs by chips. No, this is not a joke. We are watching the emergence of a totally new lighting industry, according to Barnaby J. Feder, from the New York Times. (Please note that you need to register -- it's free -- for accessing the article.)
The ubiquitous light bulb is quietly on its way to becoming as quaint a relic as the gas lanterns it replaced more than a century ago. Incandescent bulbs, neon tubes and fluorescent lamps are starting to give way to light-emitting microchips that work longer, use less power and allow designers to use light in ways they never have before.
The chips -- 18 million of them -- are already on display in the $37 million Nasdaq sign in Times Square. They are in the vibrant facade of the Goodman Theater in Chicago and adorned last year's White House Christmas tree. More notable, the chips are penetrating blue-collar tasks like illuminating traffic lights, brake lights and exit signs.
Here is a photograph of the marquee of the Loews theater on 42nd Street in Manhattan. It was created by Color Kinetics of Boston and it is lighted with L.E.D.'s
These chips will soon come to your home.
Lighting experts expect the pace of change to pick up as researchers continue their relentless efforts to shrink the chips to microscopic size, improve their already impressive energy efficiency and increase their brightness. The chips are expected to move into the general home and office lighting market as early as 2007.
The chips, which are known as light-emitting diodes, or L.E.D.'s, have huge performance advantages in many mundane tasks. In devices like traffic lights, for example, they consume 80 percent less electricity than do the bulbs they replace and last up to 10 times as long.
Feder then describes the uses of these chips by architects and building designers. He also looks at the upcoming competition from organic light-emitting diodes, or O.L.E.D's.
Finally, he explores new research fields like nanotechnology.
In July, for instance, Kopin, a manufacturer of semiconductors and electronics displays based in Taunton, Mass., disclosed that it had discovered a way to make millions of pockets just two nanometers thick in the dust-size light-emitting chips.
As a result, Kopin, which was once unknown in the industry, is gearing up to ship 100 million light chips this year to contractors who will package them with power and optical components for use by device manufacturers.
The first applications, according to John Fan, Kopin's chief executive, are likely to be back-lighting for liquid-crystal displays on portable electronics and night-lighting for keys on devices like cellphones. The chips are so small that the entire year's production could be easily enclosed in a golf ball.
Source: Barnaby J. Feder, The New York Times, February 11, 2003 (Free registration requested) [Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]
5:28:53 PM
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Vivato releases pricing for phased-array WiFi antennae. Vivato is a company that demoed a super-sweet WiFi antenna that uses phased-array technology to lock onto (and track) the locations of all the users on its system and project thin beams of connectivity to up to 150 stations, which allows it to emit at very high, focused power, extending range without running afoul of FCC regs. They've cleared their regulatory hurdles and been Part 15 certified by the FCC, and they're ready to ship. The unit goes on sale in May, and will cost $9,000 -- just about the price of a regualr WiFi access-point circa 1999, before Apple shipped the $300 Airport. Link Discuss (via WiFi News) [Boing Boing Blog]
5:17:37 PM
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An amazing technology breakthrough - Dan Gillmor reports on a major milestone: storage costs for electronic files has dropped to $1 per Gigabyte. Dan's article reflects on the significance of low cost storage, and uses a lot of great examples.
For lawyers, who deal with reams of paper, here is another metric: 1 GB of data is equivalent to about 6 bankers boxes of scanned paper.
Here in our law firm it costs us $13.52 to send a box of records to storage, and then it's .23 per month for each box. So if we sent 6 boxes to storage, it would cost us $79.50 for the first month, and then $1.38 per month for the next 11 months. So the total yearly cost of storing 6 boxes would be $94.68.
Since it only costs $1 to store that data in electronic form, as compared to about $100 to store it in paper form, that means that the cost of storing paper is 100 times the cost of storing electronic documents.
Oh, and the cost of retrieving paper is not cheap. For our firm it would be $21.96 to retrieve a box from storage and return it. Or $13.39 to retrieve it permanently. Or $6.76 to have the storage company destroy the box. Obviously, there is no cost for retrieval or destruction of electronic files. [Ernie the Attorney]
5:13:06 PM
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Prattern Recognition dissected. Joe Clark has started a project to dissect William Gibson's new novel, "Pattern Recognition," one chapter at a time. Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
William Gibson is coming to Minnesota this Wed. I'm planning on getting an autographed version for my collection.
4:47:33 PM
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"Who needs oil? I ride the Bus!"
Actual sign seen at a recent war protest.
4:44:24 PM
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Pervasive Computing.
The emergence of small, embedded processors is also contributing to a shift away from products and toward higher-margin services, he said. For example, cellphone providers practically give the handsets away and make most of their money on the service they offer.
"The next industry to fall will be the automotive business," Saffo said.
For example, the Mercedes C-Class sedan has 153 microprocessors and features an optional satellite-based communication system that enables drivers to contact car companies to get map and other driving information, stock updates and help in emergencies.
"It's not a car, it's a computer," Saffo said.
"Soon, they'll be selling cars at or below cost" because they will be able to make up the difference with service fees.
[Smart Mobs]
153 microprocessors! wow, I don't even know if I could come up with 153 things in a car that could be controled by a microprocessor!
I recently read that about 1/2 of all microprocessor sales are for 4 bit devices, about 1/4 for 8 and the 1/4 for 16 with the rest going to the 32+ bit devices.
4:29:08 PM
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Business News from Wired News - New Privacy Menace: Cell Phones?.
Concert halls, art museums, gym locker rooms and other public places where photography is greatly discouraged may have problems from another device -- cell phones.
Cell phones with attachable cameras or cameras embedded in them have become so ubiquitous in Hong Kong, for example, that gyms there are prohibiting people from making calls in the locker room. [Privacy Digest]
4:21:17 PM
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CNET NEWS.COM By Declan McCullagh - Perspective: Closer to a national ID plan?
A little-known company called EagleCheck is hoping to provide a standardized identity check technique that governments and corporations will use to verify that you are who you claim to be.
EagleCheck, a privately held firm in Cleveland proposes that whenever someone uses a driver's license or a passport for identity verification, the ID's authenticity will be checked through EagleCheck's network that is tied to state motor vehicle and federal databases. The databases will respond by saying whether the ID is valid.
I ran into David Akers, EagleCheck's president, last week in a Senate office building where he was hawking his system to a crowd of politicians understandably nervous about Threat Level Orange, Osama bin Laden, and possible terrorist attacks sparked by a loominginvasion of Iraq. Stacked on a table were brochures warning in stark crimson letters that "EagleCheck could have flagged" 14 of the 19 terrorists who hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, because some had used expired visas and stolen passports.
Akers has had some success so far. In December, the Transportation Security Administration gave permission for EagleCheck to link its systems "to government databases" in a pair of test projects at the Cleveland and Akron, Ohio airports.
>But EagleCheck isn't limiting its marketing plan to airport security. "We are certainly looking at a variety of other applications other than airports," said Akers, listing bars, banks, government buildings--in short, wherever ID is required--as possible customers.
If EagleCheck or a similar system succeeds, it raises the specter of something akin to a national identity card, a concept that Americans have shunned in the past but could return in a more high-tech form. (In a column last summer, I wrote about how the White House was pressuring state governments to move in this direction by standardizing on driver's licenses.)
[ ... ]
It's true that many of us already use our driver's license as a general form of identification. But a true national ID would be different in two important ways: First, it would be tied to a back-end database so all verifications would be logged with the time, date and location. Second, you likely would be required to show it on demand to police, shrinking our sphere of anonymity even more.
One problem with such a system is that it would not thwart terrorists who--if you believe the FBI--are already living in the United States and likely could obtain a valid identity card either legally or illegally. Administering such a database would require a massive bureaucracy, and the inevitable errors or glitches would eliminate an innocent person's freedom to travel from one place to another until they were corrected.
If EagleCheck or a system like it succeeds, it becomes eerily possible to imagine a future in which identity card readers are omnipresent, girding us in a constant mesh of surveillance. Want to pick up your car from the parking garage? Insert your identity card and forefinger in the reader first. Going to work at the office or coming home to an apartment building? Better make sure you have that microchipped card with you. Have any unpaid parking tickets anywhere in the United States? Better just stay at home.
Needless to say, this massive database would end up bursting with detailed records of all our life's activities. It would be incredibly valuable to police and create an irresistible temptation for misuse, either through corrupt officials or through electronic intrusions. I'm not saying that such a scenario is happening today. It isn't. But it's possible, and if there's another terrorist attack on the United States, all bets are off. [Privacy Digest]
4:20:49 PM
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© Copyright 2003 Mark Oeltjenbruns.
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A sculptor-roboticist from the U of Texas, late of Disney Imagineering, has demoed K-Bot, a 2kg robot head that mimics facial expressions of nearby humans with 1 sec's latency. 
A BoingBoing exclusive: Breathtaking, full-screen panoramic photographs of Saturday's massive peace rallies in 
