Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Thursday, December 5, 2002

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Mouse genome will offer keys to human DNA function: "Scientists on Wednesday unveiled the first-ever published map of the mouse's genetic code, a development they said would greatly speed animal-based medical research and accelerate their understanding of the genetic causes of human disease." [Reuters Health eLine]

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Software Strips Microsoft Word Documents of Sensitive Metadata: "... cleans documents of unwanted metadata before they're sent out by e-mail to external users. Types of metadata cleaned from documents include previous versions, author, category, and company." (On Internetweek) [News Is Free: Popular Items]

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Canon PowerShot G3 review: "Canon announced the new PowerShot G3 at Photokina this year, it builds on the PowerShot 'G' platform by increasing the optical zoom to four times, adding a built-in ND filter, a new control dial, power dial,..." [Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)]

Wake up and join the EFF -- Comment()
Boing Boing Blog tells that John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the EFF, list several reasons why it's a good idea to join the EFF:

Thomas Pynchon on bad acid couldn't dream up the paranoid nightmares now pouring out of Washington.

Today we learn that the CIA has been given authority to kill any American citizen who is *suspected* of terrorism. Say again? You mean they *all* have a license to kill? And not just the other, but us. Summarily. Without trial. Yikes.

Then there is John Poindexter's new Information Awareness Office - about which I have much more to say in my next screed - which is being extended authorization to combine and data-mine every database, commercial or public, in a massive search for evil-doers and behavioral patterns that match up with evil-doing. Records of your buying habits, your medical problems, the books you take out of the library, your driving skills, your telephone calls are all available to the Government without a warrant or a suspect.

The Pentagon is working on a new version of Internet protocols called eDNA that would render digital anonymity impossible. (I'll write more about this in my next spam as well.)

The Homeland Security Administration is being given a 150 billion dollars, 170,000 employees and few legal constraints to become a massive internal surveillance force with vastly streamlined access to your electronic records.

Meanwhile, the Content Industry is working on redesigning the architecture of both the Internet and your computer so that they - and anyone else who might be interested - will be able to see what's on your computer and control what can pass between it and any other digital devices.

Fair use, the ability to share information with your friends, indeed - the very right to know - is being criminalized. With these legally ordained control methods, it becomes trivially easy to stop the flow of dissent since it might contain copyrighted material.

The bats of Facism have left the cave. Against this cloud of leather-winged horrors, there are few organized forces of opposition.
[...]
This is why I believe it is very important right now that you join the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I would say that even if I hadn't help start the thing. There just isn't anything else like us out there. Without our technically sophisticated interventions, the Internet will become the most penetrating and through surveillance tool ever conceived. Click right here -> www.eff.org <- right now and join.

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What Mac Needs To Do To Survive: "I love Macintosh computers. I love everything about them: the way they look, the way they operate, even the little sounds they make. When the new Titanium laptop came out, I considered shoplifting for the first time in my life. But Apple faces several grim realities and needs to do three difficult things to survive." [osOpinion]

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IBM Unveils Its First Linux-Only Server: "Taking its Linux commitment to new heights, IBM has launched a new series of low-cost servers, its first to run the open source platform exclusively. The company said the new machines, which run on Power4 processors, cost 44 percent less to operate than comparable Linux servers from HP." [osOpinion]

Why Open Source Rocks -- Comment()
Matt Croydon::postneo points to Sam Ruby:

# Original version by Sam Ruby, written in Python. # Ported to Perl, and enhanced by Jim Jagielski # Enhanced to have links to personal pages by Sam Ruby. # Enhanced to have the code suck less by Ask Bjoern Hansen.

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Text poetry competition: the winners: "The winner of our text poetry competition was just waiting for a lucky break, writes Victor Keegan." [Guardian Unlimited]

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Ethics in Data Mining and Cryptography: "In recent years, computer science has become more of an applied science than a pure discipline. It is true that much of the driving force behind proliferation of computing devices is commercial. However, over-commercialization has begun cultivating products that give rise to ethical issues. [...] In this brief article, I shall mention two such areas which require our immediate attention in both making the public aware and warning the future researchers of the implications." [Advogato]

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Tiny record company announces innovative license: "With the major record companies placing more restrictions on their content, it's refreshing to see one tiny company take the opposite approach." [MacMegasite]

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Apple Offers IP Over FireWire Preview Release: "Apple's Developer Connection (ADC) Web site is now offering an IP over FireWire Preview Release -- technology that enables Macs and other devices to communicate using TCP/IP through FireWire instead of Ethernet or other common networking media." (MacCentral via MyAppleMenu) [MyAppleMenu]

A tough virus -- Comment()
I have been sick with the flu almost for a week. First my nose was running, and I had throat pain during the night. After some days I got high fever, severe headache, and coughing. I have consulted a doctor twice, first time the doctor said that I did indeed have a 'unindentified infection of the respiratory vessels' (I hope I translated that right). The second time I got a prescription for a stonger medicine for the cough, to help in getting sleep.

Speaking of viruses, this one is tough and brings to mind the old IT saying: 'Stays like a hole in a Microsoft product'. Be ready. Viruses travel fast, even the human ones, and this one may visit you soon. Go and buy a lot a handkerchiefs and something to drink in case you catch this bug.

Mac OS X 10.2 selected Product of the Year by a PC magazine -- Comment()
The Finnish IT magazine MikroPC has today published its traditional list of 'Products of the Year'. This time the winner of the category 'Software - Applications' was Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) by Apple.