Wednesday, October 02, 2002

Dialtones is a large-scale concert performance whose sounds are wholly produced through the carefully choreographed dialing and ringing of the audience’s own mobile phones. Because the exact location and tone of each participant’s mobile phone can be known in advance, Dialtones affords a diverse range of unprecedented sonic phenomena and musically interesting structures. Moreover, by directing our attention to the unexplored musical potential of a ubiquitous modern appliance, Dialtones inverts our understandings of private sound, public space, electromagnetic etiquette, and the fabric of the communications network which connects us. 10:59:08 PM

For added convenience, and to make new reading faster, I set the "Checkboxes on or off?" option in Radio's news aggregator to 'on', which means I don't have to specifically check off an article to delete it. The downside: while I was browsing and posting, the aggregator ran and updated the list.  When I got to the bottom, I clicked the delete button and lost everything that had come in on the last scan.  Ooops!  Have to be more careful of this from now on. 9:26:55 PM

Ballmer on snacks and software. What's important to Microsoft's chief executive? Snack food, bugs and software, apparently, according to a memo he sent to the software giant's customers. [CNET News.com] I wonder if he prefers flat foods, that can be slipped under a closed office door? 9:17:19 PM

Warchalk Your Base Station. We were discussing how to make it clear that a network was intended for public use, and Daniel Biddle (deltab) suggested that the warchalking symbols be included in the SSID (AP name). I think this is a great idea! So, if you wanted people to join your network you might name it: )( aaronsw.com And if you wanted them to stay out: () vexcorp.biz (Of course, you can use any SSID name.) What do people think? [Warchalking] This is a wonderful idea.  If folks truely aren't trying to steal or hack, but are in fact just looking to borrow some bandwidth, they ought to respect this. 9:15:16 PM

Cory Doctorow Takes on Warchalking FUD. Over on his comments page about Nokia, Cory Doctorow explains why it's silly to think of warchalking as theft: The default assumption of the Internet is that open services can be connected to. That's as true of httpds on port 80 as it is of WiFi. If this regime that you're calling for were true, then there would be no means for people in good fath to connect to websites, for search engines to spider, for people to exchange email. [...] It is NOT illegal to advertise that stores don't have security measures, nor is such tantamount to theft. Exactly. Here's another example: I'm walking down the street and I ask you for the time of day. You look down at your watch and tell me. You don't know me, and you didn't have to respond, but you did so because it was the kind thing to do. I'm walking down the street and I ask your base station for the contents of http://www.cnn.com/. Your base station asks the CNN server and tells me. It didn't know me, and it didn't have to respond, but it did so because that's what it's programmed to do. Is asking people for the time going to be illegal next? [Warchalking] 8:53:14 PM

Douglas Adams. "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." [Quotes of the Day] 8:49:14 PM

Bill Watterson. "People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children." [Quotes of the Day] 8:48:53 PM

Isaac Asimov. "Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." [Quotes of the Day] 8:48:26 PM

Vintage Music Archive. Dismuke has a 24 hour radio station and RealAudio archive of '20s and '30s music. Some nice stuff in here. (Also check out my favorite music archive, Red Hot Jazz.) Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog] 8:40:28 PM

Rethinking CEO Salaries. Is reform around the corner? [The Motley Fool] I've been wondering lately, what exactly does a CEO of a major corporation do that justifies the multi-million dollar salaries they receive?  Do they really have that great of an impact on the bottom line?  Someone please clue me in, 'cause I can't figure it out.  It's one thing if you're the founder and own tons of stock.  In that case, you certainly should be realizing some bucks in dividends.  But if you were just hired no like any other employee and don't have any real ownership, how are these pay scales justified?  500 times that of a front-line worker?  Please! Perhaps a little reform in this area is just what the doctor ordered.  8:19:48 PM

My Life As An RSS Icon. "Radio Wish: [John Robb] Wouldn't it be interesting to have an RSS variant (new name obviously) for subscribing to personal contact data off of weblogs?  Name, weblog name, weblog location, physical address (or as much as you want to provide), spam free e-mail account location, IM link to username, location of RSS feed, Bio info, bio pic, resume, etc.  To a large extent this would replace my bookmark and e-mail contact list.  I truly think that weblogs are starting to become global 24x7 business cards.  This would help me collect them. Answer: [Kunekt] Kunekt Cards make your contact information available as an RSS or RDF (News) feed." [Don W Strickland: RadioFAQ] This is exactly what I mean when I say that ever since I've discovered RSS and news aggregators, I've started looking at my life through RSS-colored glasses. So in this spirit, here's my Kunekt card. Now what? [The Shifted Librarian] So this is, in essence, he XML equivalent of a vCard, right?  Nifty.  But now what do I do with them?  There needs to be a utility that can slurp this stuff in to Outlook (or Act or whatever) auto-magically when I click the icon. 8:09:36 PM

"DRM Legislation As It Should Be. "DRM Bill Proposed in US House ""A bill introduced Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives approaches digital rights management (DRM) from consumers' standpoint by ensuring that people who buy digital media can make backup copies and play them on whatever device they like without fear of breaking copyright law, according to the bill's sponsor. "Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California whose district includes Silicon Valley, introduced the bill, saying the legislation seeks to maintain in the digital age the same balance that existing U.S. copyright law establishes between the interest of copyright holders in controlling the use of their works and the interests of the public in the free flow of ideas, information and commerce. "'Consumers need a voice in this debate,' a release issued by Lofgren's office quotes the congresswoman as saying. "Right now it is the entertainment industry versus the technology industry, and the consumers are watching from the sidelines." "The bill seeks to punish digital pirates without treating every consumer as a criminal, the release said. Lofgren noted that current proposals to combat digital piracy focus on "locking down" content and controlling how consumers use it. Cryptographic tools currently under development, for example, could play a role in legislative efforts to prevent copyright violations of DVDs. "The bill also prohibits shrink-wrapped licenses, also known as EULAs (end-user license agreements), that limit consumer rights, and the proposal clarifies the ways in which consumers can legally sell, archive or give away copies of digital works they purchased. In addition the law gives flexibility to digital content owners to develop new and innovative ways to protect their content and enable its use without violating copyright law." [InfoWorld: Top News] "Do my eyes deceive me? Is this common sense being interjected into the debate? Room spinning... Jenny confused.... "I'm trying to research the bill and verify it in order to get the details so that I can encourage my representatives to vote for it! Now if we could just get her to add language clarifying a library's right to circulate content...." [The Shifted Librarian] Representative Zoe Lofgren's home page The text of the Digital Choice and Freedom Act 7:46:07 PM

NEC Launches "PowerMate Eco" Green PC [Slashdot] 7:33:32 PM

"Average Cost Of A Wedding Now $22K. Plastic::Etcetera::Stats: "The money that's being spent on the average wedding: $22,360, according to Conde Nast Bridal Group."" [Plastic: Most Recent] The words I hope to one day hear from my daughter: "Daddy, can I just get married at the court house, and use all that money for a down payment on a house instead?"  It could happen! 7:32:46 PM

But does it have an RSS feed? "Faux News Or Fox News - The Thin, Blurry Line. Plastic::Media::Art: Can a world addicted to entertainment and generally useless information recognize a work of art that uses those forms for a "higher" purpose? and Does it matter?" [Plastic: Most Recent] NewZoid's randomly generated headlines range from the obviously amusing the the disturbingly genuine.  I don't know if it's art, but I like it. "WARNING! DO NOT ACT ON THE BASIS OF THIS NEWS! (Just meditate on it.)" 7:28:42 PM

Well, sh*t on me! I seem to find a new dimension to Radio almost every day.  Today, I was trying to find the built-in outliner.  I updated the .root file.  I poked around.  I looked at the righ-mouse menu on the tray icon.  Just couldn't figure out where the stinking "Radio menu" was.  Then, I clicked the "open Radio" option off the tray-icon menu, expecting it to launch the web browser to my local homepage.  Much to my surprise, a new Windows app opened.  Eureka!  I was under the impression that the web interface was all there was to Radio.  It turns out there is a whole mess of other stuff in the applications 'main' window.  I'll be digging around in there tonight, to see what other gems remain hidden. 6:30:22 PM

T-Mobile: GOOOD! T-Mobile: BAAAAAD! 1:28:27 AM

"Hold the button: "proves the best flash apps are the most simple (and pointlessly stupid). Try it once and you'll quickly understand how nuts the top scores are"" [MetaFilter][The Shifted Librarian] HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!! heh, heh...  I'm so easily amused at 1:00am. 1:20:49 AM

In contrast, Marketplace radio program says warchalking is prelude to bandwidth stealing: I haven't listened to the report yet, but Mike Whybark writes in to criticize the radio program's report and encourage folks to listen to it themselves, and send feedback to the program. [80211b News] I listened to this on the marketplace website just now.  I don't think the report was at all critical of warchalking.  I don't think they took a stance at all.  In fact, they gave equal time to both those for and against it.  The story even closed with a comment about giving away extra bandwidth as being in tune with the spirit of the Internet.  It was, in fact, a very well-balanced report. If anyone has the URL for Aaron Swartz's site (mentioned in the interview), please email me. Updated: Ask and you shall receive, though not via email but instead from my trusty news aggregator.  Sweet! 1:15:28 AM

"Koan, Make My Day: Neuroscientists Unlock Secret Of Zen Gardens?. Plastic::Etcetera::Ideas: If there's a tree not in the Zen garden, and there's someone to see it, then what's that one-armed man doing applauding my efforts?" [Plastic: Most Recent] 12:54:19 AM

"Please, Please, For The Love Of God, Do Not Write That Book. Plastic::Media::Literature: Epstein comments that maybe it's a desire to confront the oppressive onslaught of oblivion or to instill a sense of significance in your life, but writing that novel is more likely to magnify that oblivion and shrink that sense of significance..." [Plastic: Most Recent] Then again, maybe I never will write that sci-fi novel after all. 12:49:09 AM

"Turkey City Lexicon. After the talk at UT Austin, I spent Saturday at the Turkey City science fiction writers' workshop at Bruce Sterling's place. Turkey City is a venerable science fiction workshop that has spawned many good writers and a lexicon of science fiction critical terms that is the de facto standard for understanding what works and what doesn't in a work of science fiction: "Squid on the Mantelpiece "Chekhov said that if there are dueling pistols over the mantelpiece in the first act, they should be fired in the third. In other words, a plot element should be deployed in a timely fashion and with proper dramatic emphasis. However, in SF plotting the MacGuffins are often so overwhelming that they cause conventional plot structures to collapse. It's hard to properly dramatize, say, the domestic effects of Dad's bank overdraft when a giant writhing kraken is levelling the city. This mismatch between the conventional dramatic proprieties and SF's extreme, grotesque, or visionary thematics is known as the "squid on the mantelpiece." "Card Tricks in the Dark "Elaborately contrived plot which arrives at (a) the punchline of a private joke no reader will get or (b) the display of some bit of learned trivia relevant only to the author. This stunt may be intensely ingenious, and very gratifying to the author, but it serves no visible fictional purpose. (Attr. Tim Powers) "I had the cold from hell all weekend and I'm jetlagged, but I wanted to get some links up before I hit the sack. Until tomorrow!" Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog] This will be most helpful when I finally get around to writing that science fiction story I've been thinking about since 1992(!). 12:47:15 AM

"Brent's Law of CMS URLs: "The more expensive the CMS, the crappier the URLs."" [Scripting News] 12:43:49 AM

Samuel Johnson. "Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out." [Quotes of the Day] 12:40:10 AM