Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Friday, January 3, 2003

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Here are pointers to some reviews of the new Olympus C-730 Zoom, a digital camera with a 10x zoom:

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Ming's Metalogue writes about Words: "I used to think I spoke and wrote English really well, considering that it isn't my first language. And maybe I'm not too bad, but recently I catch myself looking at what I write, and it seems like I'm just babbling about things I don't really know anything about, using the wrong words, put together wrong. Just mimicking what real people are doing. Like an improv comic giving a convincing lecture on nuclear physics in Chinese, despite knowing neither. Buckminster Fuller once had a personal crisis where he wasn't sure what anything really meant, and he vowed to not speak again before he would be able to say things precisely. He didn't say anything to anybody for about two years, and when he finally did, what he was saying was indeed amazingly coherent and precise. But he was also inventing a bunch of words nobody else was using. Hm, I'm not planning on duplicating that. But maybe I'll spend a bit more time in silence each day, so I can be more sure that I'll actually be saying things that need to be said."

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Why mobile phones are the technology of the future: "With technology developing at the current speed, it is the perfect surveillance device to spy on people: you can easily determine where they are, and, as Bill Thompson points out, now that camera phones are becoming more popular, even what they are doing: 'what about having to provide picture evidence of your red nose and bleary eyes when you call in sick, or a photo of your mates to your partner when you go out for an evening without them.'" [The Aardvark Speaks]

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thomas n. burg | randgänge points to iWire: "... Emergent Topics for the Information Society (pdf), published in a linked, extremely comprehensive but in e-terms fairly old (2001) report, Ilkka Tuomi , the author recently presented his ideas on the impact of blogs on the public sphere (pdf)."

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Scott Rosenberg writes: "Philip Pullman's lecture on storytelling and writers' responsibility is worth reading at least twice. Though he specifically addresses things as an author of fiction, his advice is good, I think, for writers of all stripes." (Link via Arts & Letters Daily)

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'Speaking' chimp throws cat among linguistic pigeons: "A chimp who has grown up among humans may have developed the ability to talk, claims research published in New Scientist magazine." [Google Technology News]

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Dow Chemical sues Bhopal survivors: 'According to Greenpeace News, Dow Chemical, the worlds largest chemical company, and new owners of Union Carbide, is suing survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India, which killed thousands of people. On December 2nd a peaceful march of 200 women survivors from Bhopal delivered toxic waste from the abandoned Carbide factory back to Dow's Indian headquarters in Bombay with the demand that Dow take responsibility for the disaster and clean up the site. Instead, Dow files a lawsuit against them for $10,000 for "loss of work". One Dow employee briefly came outside to meet the protesters. Apparently he's very well paid. On the other hand, that amounts to about 10 years of income for those particular protesters.' [Ming's Metalogue]

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Cray ships first Cray X1 system with IBM chips: "The X1 is thought by the Seattle company to be the world's fastest supercomputer." [Computerworld News]

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What the Future Holds for Microsoft: "...Microsoft had this system that encouraged and rewarded people who acted a certain way. And some of that behavior trickled out into meetings with customers and partners, where they were correctly seen as negatives and helped foster the anti-Microsoft attitude. But since Microsoft kept hiring and promoting obnoxious people, they kept being obnoxious." [kuro5hin.org]

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Apple releases iCal update, iSync 1.0: "With iSync 1.0, users can synchronize contacts and iCal calendars across Mac OS computers and devices, such as an iSync-compatible mobile phone, an iPod or a Palm OS device." [Computerworld News]

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Vaporware 2002: Tech up in Smoke?: "In an unusual turn, three products out of the 10 to receive the Wired News 2002 Vaporware Award also appeared on last year's list. Tech-hungry readers wonder: Why can't these developers get it together?" [Wired News]