Sunday, January 19, 2003

Recently it was claimed that the speed of gravity was measured to an accuracy of about 25 percent. Devising an experiment that can do this is not easy and some people are expressing serious doubts about the claim. If you have been around general relativity an interesting piece by Cillford Will is available. I suspect it won't be the last. Peter van Nieuwenhuizen of Stony Brook, suggested the measurements were "complete nonsense" in a letter to Nature last week. I know and respect Peter and note he is very careful with his words. I'm not expert enough to make a judgement, but Will raises some interesting points- I would not bet on the survival of the measurement. 12:17:01 PM     This walking tour of London has some similarities to what my friend Karrie did five years ago in Westfield, New Jersey. This type of map is very useful for people like me who tend to navigate visually. 6:21:39 AM     Omniglot is an attempt to catalog writing systems including things like Ancient Egyptian, Mayan, Morse Code, Braille, Standard Galactic Alphabet, Latin/Roman, Taana --- you get the idea. Wonderful and highly recommended! 6:21:18 AM     If you were to propose some grand technical challenge to stimulate the aerospace industry, what would it be? Several sources are reporting that Bush will propose a nuclear rocket propulsion system (like his father did in the late 80s). There are clearly interesting technical hurdles and it may not be a bad area to invent - the monies talked about don't seem excessive. A challenge to the nation's engineering schools is interesting by itself - what areas could be stimulated by some government funding and which areas would have the greatest impact on other technologies and the public. There is a big distinction from pure science here (even though fields like particle physics have spun off numerous interesting technologies). What areas would you fund? I would like to see another push at alternate energy - we just don't seem to be getting away from greenhouse gas enhancing activities quickly enough and the new world will soon be enhancing the effect. 6:20:54 AM     Not all of you are blessed with ferrets. Of course there are people who have ferrets and a webcam... This one can be really boring when the guys are sleeping and dark and grainy when the main lights are out. The webcam used here is an inexpensive camera that runs linux, has an internal web server and just needs a net connection. They are about $300. 6:20:35 AM     Now the RIAA is suggesting ISPs should be billed for the type of content they carry. Perhaps this could be made to apply to telephone service too - maybe we can get rebates from the Telcos for all of the bad financial advise that has been carried by them. Maybe the RIAA can collect on all of those performances of Happy Birthday to You,,, My personal studies show a very different signal than what the RIAA reports (but I'm only looking at colleges and high schools) ... What I see is a frustration with the quality of the product and competition with other things on which to spend money. People who move files tend to report spending more on music. Most of the file swapping I see takes place within small groups using CD burning ... There is also an increased interest in small labels - particularly European labels. I've mentioned it before, but it is worth mentioning again. The music companies have a great deal of control over a channel of music delivery to the consumer. They see themselves as discovering, developing and promoting talent. This is all fine and good, but the major thing I hear from people between 15 and 25 is that the current offerings are incredibly lame. Falling revenues from live concerts and tours dropped indicates a diminishing interest in the product rather than theft of the product. There is interesting music out there - just not from the majors. There are also interesting DVDs, movies and video games (all of which have grown - perhaps at the expense of the music business). To compete the music majors need to increase the quality of their product and add other types of value. Only then will they re-engage their customers. The Register recently posted a note on the IFPI (an international version of the RIAA) and its mission to fight piracy. Early attempts at P2P poisoning (or war) are mentioned along with the music industries unwillingness to evolve their business model to work with digital music. A few of us were involved in digital music projects aimed at supporting the music industry in the time frame mentioned here. The article seems accurate. I have made a point of mostly buying directly from musicians. If you need something from a major label consider a visit to a used record store. A bit of searching will reveal places on the web if there isn't anything in your town. 6:20:12 AM

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