Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Monday, January 20, 2003

Using a camera-equipped mobile in a locker room -- Comment()
Warning: use of camera-equipped mobile phones could be hazardous to your health: "That's the message going out from at least one chain of health clubs in Hong Kong, where a new generation of cell phones that can take and transmit video and still photos is raising concerns over a new crop of privacy-related issues. Physical, which operates nine gyms in the former British colony, recently posted signs in its Hong Kong facilities forbidding the use of mobile phones in locker rooms."

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Scientists Giddy About the Grid: "For years, connecting university and research-center supercomputers so they could share resources simply wasn't feasible. New standards are changing that and opening the door to new research possibilities. Randy Dotinga reports from San Diego." [Wired News]

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DMCA: Ma Bell Would Be Proud: "In using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as an excuse to sue third parties that dare to make inexpensive consumables, tech equipment makers also cheat consumers. It's reminiscent of the telcos' fight for dominance in the '50s. A commentary by Lauren Weinstein." [Wired News]

When Software Bugs Bite Consumer Products -- Comment()
When Software Bugs Bite: "Auto industry expert Dennis Virag, president of the Automotive Consulting Group Inc., says the problem is not customer ignorance, but industry carelessness. In the race to add glitzy amenities like navigation, Virag says, auto manufacturers are contracting out the development of immature and faulty software."

Future of innovation -- Comment()
Will Innovation Flourish in the Future? "MIT physics professor Jerome I. Friedman writes that the future of basic research, which forms the basis of innovation that significantly impacts society and the quality of life, may be in doubt."

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WSIS: Delegates Fail to Agree on Open-Source 'Support': 'Delegates to the Asian Regional Conference, a precursor to the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society to take place in December, failed to agree on language "supporting" open-source software. The final draft instead "encouraged" open-source software and standards to be developed by member nations, a change backed by a U.S. delegation worried about its proprietary software industry. Among the multitude of issues discussed at the conference were information security, intellectual property rights, and the digital divide.'

Updated CV -- Comment()
After lapsing for half a year, I updated my CV (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format). I noticed that I had quite a few new publications to add to the CV. Now the length of the CV is five pages.

I started to keep track of my publications about three years ago. Thus, the CV doesn't list all 300+ publications of mine (in fact I don't have a complete listing), and is focused on the more recent publications. Even then I had to leave out quite a few articles to keep the CV in reasonable length.

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Over 50,000 downloads of Down and Out!: "Ten days after the launch of my novel, I've gotten more than 50,000 downloads from my site, plus untold email, p2p and mirrored transfers. I've done so many interviews about the book and the Creative Commons that it's actually cutting into my writing time. Thanks to everyone who helped make this a success." [Boing Boing Blog]

Fake treatments for dead patients -- Comment()
Doctors' fake claims cost billions: German minister: "German health minister Ulla Schmidt demanded Thursday that doctors explain reports that an estimated billion euros a year are being spent on fake treatments for dead patients. [...] Her calls for clarity came after a regional health insurer said doctors were making thousands of fraudulent claims for treatment of patients who had died or were insured with other companies." [Reuters Health eLine]

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Czech Proverb: "The big thieves hang the little ones." [Quotes of the Day] [Seb's Open Research]

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Stones Self-Organize into Circles: "It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: stones arranging themselves into perfect circles or elaborate labyrinths. But the forces behind these mysterious patterns, which are commonly found in many polar and high alpine environments..:" [Google Technology News]

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Getting to Top of an Internet Search: "Just as it is often difficult for people to find what they are looking for on the Internet, it is frequently a challenge for the people themselves to be found when they want to be." [Google Technology News]

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Microsoft unveils new CD copy protection: "Microsoft announced on Saturday new digital rights software aimed at helping music labels control unauthorized copying of CDs, one of the biggest thorns in the ailing industry's side." [Google Technology News]

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Drivers license spam scam busted: 'The alleged scam artists -- who operated under a variety of names -- charged up to $375 for a license that could supposedly win back suspended driving privileges and make holders immune to speeding tickets or other traffic violations, the watchdog agency said. [...] Legitimate international licenses confer no such privileges, but only translate an existing state-issued license into a number of different languages, said Howard Beales, head of the FTC's consumer-protection division. [...] "These scam artists act as if they have a license to deceive customers," Beales said.' [Privacy Digest]

Sophisticated spam -- Comment()
Spam's getting more sophisticated: "Technology levels are rising in the battle between those working to save you from spam and bulk mailers looking to slip messages through your filters." [Computerworld News]

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The secret life of Professor Lessig: "One nice thing about Google Groups is that you can use it to search for recent posts by people who interest you. For example, Professor Lessig has posted 10 things to Usenet." [Aaron Swartz: The Weblog]

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Run the same letter to the editor: "An alert Google user noticed that dozens of local newspapers from Boston to Honolulu have run the same letter to the editor under different names nationwide (the Eschaton weblog posted a partial list)." [Paul Boutin]

Fifteen years ago: Forestry of the Future -- Comment()
Fifteen years ago, in 1987, I was in the army doing my service. However, early in 1987 I noticed an announcement for an international writing competition 'Forestry of the Future'. I started writing short pieces of text on evenings, when there was some free time after the military exercises. I polished the resulting text on a weekend leave at home, and sent it in.

I didn't expect much of the text, because it was done in bits and pieces, and my writing skills did not get much practise in the army. However, it turned out that I was the national winner of the competition. I even got a one-day leave from the army to attend the award ceremony. It turned out that the other price-winners were studying forestry, and my background was quite different (physics and mathematics). In any case, I got the price, which was a little bit of money and a paid trip to meet the other winners at the UN building in Geneva, Switzerland.

I have good memories of the trip to Geneva, even though time has managed to erode a lot of the details. I remember us poor students in an exclusive watch shop in Geneva, looking at watches with starting prices around 1000 dollars. We were the only customers at the shop, sitting on armchairs with only a couple of watches on display at a time. The service was excellent, even when we finally said that we didn't quite find what we were looking for.