Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Friday, December 6, 2002

Citizens are suspects -- Comment()
[ t e c h n o c u l t u r e ] points to an opinion piece in Irish Times:

But this odious law will be the Justice Department's baby. Last week, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, whose department has been drafting just such a proposal since the EU vote, denied that it was anything other than a reasonable attempt to catch truly evil criminals, such as terrorists. He also emphatically stated that such a proposal would not turn the State into Big Brother.

But it absolutely does. Because the point at which the State decides that it must hold potential evidence for years in anticipation of as yet uncommitted crimes is the point at which the State has decided that all of its citizens are potential suspects and criminals.

-- Comment()

Boing Boing Blog writes about Beautiful wind-walkers: "Theo Jansen has developed staggeringly beautiful machines that walk when powered by gusts of wind. Created to be 'art that evolves', he's now working on a way to store the energy to provide power when there is no wind. He likens this to muscles."

-- Comment()
Microsoft akin to Tanya Harding: "So says U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz. The crowbar wielding, knee popping company is also similar to baseball." [MetaFilter]

-- Comment()
SVG's past and promising future (XML.com): "Among technical people around the world SVG awareness has risen dramatically over the last year. The SVG-Developers list has reached the 3,000 subscribers, while more specialized lists, ranging from job postings to pure coding, have popped up. Popular tech sites like Slashdot and News.com have covered SVG." [IBM DeveloperWorks: XML News]

-- Comment()
Incentives are risky: "I once witnessed a project where the contract was designed with such warped million-dollar incentives that some consultants were strongly motivated to not work in the best interest of the client. Dishonest people would in such circumstances focus on the contractual bonus, thus knowingly and actively undermining the client's business strategy. Even worse would be a situation where some employees on the client side have been given irrational incentives." [via Davos Newbies] [Jinn of Quality and Risk]

The Finnish Independence Day -- Comment()
Today is the Finnish Independence Day. The president has invited a lot of distinguished guests to the presidential palace. The Finnish television channels are showing almost non-stop broadcasts from the celebration in the palace. The president and her husband have already started the dance, and a lot of people are trying to fit on the dance floor. There are some demonstrators outside, protesting globalization, unequality of people, and other topics. It is a winter night, about minus 10 degrees Celcius outside the palace, and quite hot inside.