Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Tuesday, January 7, 2003

-- Comment()
Google kicking ass, as always: "Google's search algorithms are getting really good. I launched the ticketstubs site exactly one week ago today, and a search for the term turns up probably 40 weblog mentions already." [A Whole Lotta Nothing]

-- Comment()
DVD Jon is free - official: "The entertainment lobby has failed to persuade a Norwegian court to convict a teenager for creating a utility for playing back DVDs on his own computer. Jon Lech Johansen has been acquitted of all charges in a trial that tested the legality of the DeCSS DVD decryption utility he produced, Norwegian paper Aftenpost reports." [The Register]

-- Comment()
Konica and Minolta Agree on Merger: "Japan's Konica Corp. and Minolta Co., two film photography giants struggling for a foothold in the digital era, said today they had agreed on a merger that could propel them into the big league." [Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)]

-- Comment()
Scientists Dismiss Second Human Cloning Claim: "Scientists are dismissing as a publicity stunt a second claim that a cloned baby has been born. Scientists say members of the Raelian movement, who claim a Dutch lesbian gave birth to a cloned baby on Friday, have given no evidence..." [Google Technology News]

-- Comment()
Pharma Sets Hopes High for 2003: "Attendees of the 21st Annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference gather in San Francisco on Monday to rub elbows, pitch potential backers and share their vision of a more promising -- and profitable -- year ahead. By Kristen Philipkoski." [Wired News]

-- Comment()
Put the Compact Disc out of its Misery: "I see Put the Compact Disc out of its Misery just made Daypop. No email from the record companies yet; maybe if a few more of you link to it they'll see it." [Paul Boutin]

O Big Brother, where art thou? -- Comment()
The RISKS Digest (Vol. 45, Issue 22) contains a long article about the TIA initiative. The article is titled O Big Brother, where art thou?:

In algorithmic terms, a "computer" (the US defense establishment) is examining another "computer" (al-Qaeda) to find its halt state, and, to complicate matters, the examinee knows of the monitoring. [...] Even if a data base existed with full optics and sound that replicated ALL activity in Eurasia alone, any one action could, or might not, be an encoding of terrorist intelligence and for this reason, interpretation would become the job of the same people who failed to bring in the "twentieth highjacker" for questioning. Our government would have to refute, at the level of basic science, Alonzo Church's thesis to the effect that all computers are Turing machines, and it would have to make or buy a Turing+n system that could defeat other Turing+0 systems.
The problem is that the United States is engaged (like it or not) in a dialogue with terrorists. If like Sharon in Israel and Cheney here, our statesmen play to the gallery, and "refuse" to "dialog" with "terrorists", they discover that violence becomes the language of choice.

This is a farfetched argument, and will not much help in opposing the TIA initiative. I would instead focus on the question of who is monitoring whom, and who is monitoring the monitors? What guarantees there are that the proposed monitoring tools are used for reasonable purposes?

One should remember that a positive match from these monitoring systems can be a false positive. In fact, the false positives may well be 10 or 100 times more numerous than matches of real "terrorist activity". And even if only one match in 100 would be a false positive, that one wrongly matched individual could be you. And how would you prove that you are innocent? This reminds me of Kafka's "Trial".

-- Comment()
Something in nothing: 'Matt wonders what one does with 100 mbs. Great question. In Korea, where, as I was told, copyright laws are "immature," they are free to stream TV to their computers. That uses chunks of bandwidth, and creates great new competition for video. (If only we (or Canada) could be "immature" again. But remember Mr. Gates' thought about how much memory a PC would need: 640k. Give us bandwidth, and we'll find a way to use it.' [Lessig Blog]

-- Comment()
Penn: a new hero: "This is a great story of a citizen standing up for his rights against petty fascism. Didn't hurt that he's an amazing and famous comedian. Don't try this without being famous." [Lessig Blog]

-- Comment()
Blogs as Disruptive Technology: "How weblogs are flying under the radar of the Content Management Giants..." [A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Weblog]

-- Comment()
2003: Blogs get bought by old media: "Keep in mind that all of these options below are purely speculative, and only meant to illustrate the potential of weblogs to those musty old executives at the media companies. If some of these marriages actually happen, remember, this is where you heard about the courtship first!" [evhead] [thomas n. burg | randgänge]

Search for me -- Comment()
I haven't been watching the referrer log of Universal Rule for some time. A moment ago I browsed through the log and noticed a Google search for my name. I tried the search, and to my surprise nine of the top-10 matches pointed to me, and one pointed to another Juha Haataja. My name is a bit rare, but there are probably dozens of similarly named people in Finland. Well, probably most of them are not active on the net. But the question is: Which of us was the search trying to find?

-- Comment()
Another Microsoft 'Partner' Charges Double-Dealing by the Monopolist: 'Microsoft's masterplan to screw phone partner. The case alleges a "Master Plan" to swindle the Brum-based startup out...' [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

-- Comment()
1km solar tower: "A 1,000m tall tower is planned as part of a huge 200MW solar power plant in the Australian outback. The air under a 4 mile diameter circle of glass would be heated by the sun, and the heat would rise up into the tower where turbines would convert it into electricity. It is planned to be completed in 2006, at a cost of A$1b and would be by far the tallest free-standing structure in the world." [Ming's Metalogue]

-- Comment()
Third annual weblog awards: "Nominations are now being accepted for the Third Annual Weblog Awards. While the prizes and such are more symbolic than..." [moxie]

-- Comment()
Prof. Winer?: "Userland chairman Dave Winer wants to move away from business and become an academic. What a great idea! I'm pretty sure he for one wouldn't disconnect too much from the real world once inside the Ivory Tower. And I'm sure he'd be a great teacher." [Seb's Open Research]

-- Comment()
New Upgrade Matrix: "A new Upgrade Matrix is now available, for use in upgrading earlier versions of Fink to the current version, under either OS X 10.1 or OS X 10.2. Users upgrading under 10.1 will be brought to Fink version 0.4.1a, while users upgrading under 10.2 will be brought to Fink version 0.5.0a." [Fink Project News]

-- Comment()
Australia plans world's tallest tower: "An Australian power company aims to build the world's tallest structure - a solar tower - in the heart of the outback." [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

-- Comment()
Poisoning the envelope: "Posts by quotation. Auto-generated from the little-used cite attribute of the BLOCKQUOTE and Q elements. Let the maelstrom begin." [dive into mark]

-- Comment()
I'm still keeping watch for reviews of the 1 GHz PowerBook which I reviewed in December, 2002.

Hands On With The 1GHz PowerBook: "Overall the 1GHz Titanium PowerBook has more to offer pro users and consumers than ever before. The addition of the SuperDrive and the speed boost will give many buyers cause to reflect on whether to purchase a desktop or a PowerBook the next time they upgrade their machine." (MacCentral via MyAppleMenu) [MyAppleMenu]

-- Comment()
Microsoft Unveils Two CDMA Phones: "In a one-two-three punch today, Microsoft announced the availability of its Smartphone and Pocket PC software for CDMA networks as well as two phones from Samsung and Hitachi. Sprint PCS also said it will sell one of the handsets." [Google Technology News]

-- Comment()
Milky Way secrets revealed: "A newly discovered giant ring of stars on the outskirts of the Milky Way, shown in this undated artist's rendering, could be evidence of our galaxy's violet birth." [Google Technology News]

-- Comment()
Boing Boing Blog writes: "William Gibson -- long gun-shy of setting up any kind of personal Internet site -- has dived into the net with both feet forward, setting up a fantastic blog."

-- Comment()
Boing Boing Blog writes that Lenient Finnish prisons work better than old penal institutions: "Finland's prison system -- revamped from its Russian-inspired harshness at the behest of academics who advocated greater leniency -- is almost fanciful in its humane-ness. Most astonishing is that it actually works, reducing crime and recidivism while costing millions less than the strongholds it replaced."