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Friday 9 May 2003
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Irish blogger Antoin O'Lachlain has forced University College Dublin and the IE Domain Registry to open up its files. O'Lachlain made a request to see various files through the Freedom of Information Act. UCD and IEDR initially refused but the Information Commissioner has rejected their reasons and ordered them to hand them over. UCD and IEDR can appeal on a point of law but it looks like O'Lachlain has scored a major coup. [antoin@eire.com]
4:16:20 PM  Google It!
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I've already mentioned the sacking of fomer Mac Week editor Henry Norr from the San Francisco Chronicle. Norr has been interview in the LA Weekly. One particular answer chilled me somewhat.
What about the 25 people in the Chronicle newsroom who signed a notice protesting your denial of free speech?
It took a fair bit of courage. Unfortunately, there are 500 people who work at the Chronicle. A lot of people had the opportunity to sign and didn?t. A lot of people who went to previous demonstrations chose not to go after this new policy came down. My case made very clear what the consequences would be. I?ve been told people are guarded in what they say in the newsroom now, and wary of crossing management. People don?t often get fired at the Chronicle. I think it?s definitely had a chilling effect.
[LA Weekly]
2:59:39 PM Google It!
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Bernie Goldbach is back at a new temporary URL and takes a different view of Andrew Orlowski's piece on Google and blogs THE REGISTER -- Andrew Orlowski is annoyed by "blog noise" on Google so he welcomes anything that will subordinate blogs in search engine results. [Underway in Ireland]
2:46:48 PM Google It!
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Salon.com has an interesting piece about Wil Wheaton and his departure from US video-game channel G4. What's interesting is that Wheaton is a well known blogger and he says at one point in the feature that without the Web his story might never have got out. NB: The story is classified as premium content you will need to purchase a subscription or watch an online advertisement to view the entire text.
2:36:48 PM Google It!
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The European Space Agency's science budget is ?140m short following budget overruns on a number of projects. The first victim of cuts may be the Rosetta comet rendezvous and return mission. The probe was due to be launched in January this year on an Ariane 5 rocket. However, after the Ariane 5 failed in December, the mission was put back to 2004. However, storing the probe and retasking the mission costs money so the mission may be scrapped entirely. [spacetoday.net]
2:21:20 PM Google It!
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A number of news sources are covering this story. Scientists in the US hav created a prototype of a true electronic paper. It is essentially an LCD monitor about 1/3 the thickness of a human hair and is as flexible as a piece of paper. The refresh rate is too slow to make it feasible as a normal video monitor put perfect for text based content. [Scientific American]
2:14:30 PM Google It!
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Space.com has a nice run down on potential private space operators and includes a mention of the X-Prize. [SPACE.com]
2:02:20 PM Google It!
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Wil Whaton (aka Wesley Crusher) highlighted this blog in his blog. It purports to be the Weblog of a woman on the run - an international fugitive - a flight risk. It's difficult to see whether it's true or false but it makes interesting reading nonetheless.
11:30:05 AM Google It!
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This has to be seen to be believed.
11:24:08 AM Google It!
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I think this speaks for itself. 
Disney and Frog Design have teamed up to deliver a line of curvilinear, fanciful, fantastically swell consumer electronics built around the iconography of Mickey, Buzz Lightyear and other Disney forms. They're highly usable, kid-friendly, and shockingly cool-looking gizmos.
Link
(via Media Diet)
[Boing Boing Blog]
11:09:28 AM Google It!
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Boing Boing Blog reports on a nasty little scam going on in the US.A Best Buy customer is launching a class-action suit against MSFT and Best Buy over a point-of-sale scam where you get a "free" MSN disk that's scanned along with your purchase, and thereafter, MSFT debits the card you used at Best Buy to charge you a monthly fee for MSN.
Some time afterwards he discovered that money was being debited from his bank account. It was going to MSN. Best Buy had passed Kim's debit card details to the Microsoft division and it had activated an account for him.
Kim says that he never asked for that account, never used the disk and certainly didn't want it. But he has been unable to get a full refund and has reached the end of his tether. He is also concerned that many others could have been caught in this trap
Link
[Boing Boing Blog]
10:54:51 AM Google It!
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Andrew Orlowski in non-rant mode takes a look at Google's plans for taking the network of blogs into account during searches. Will the search engine giant create a system for searching blogs separately the way it separated out Usenet groups? While a few people may object, he sugests, most people would welcome it.
[The Register]
10:48:28 AM Google It!
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Shades of Star Trek Next Generation in this BBC report. Remember Geordi's VISOR? Blind patients given a pioneering retinal implant have managed to receive and decipher pictures sent from a video camera. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]
10:39:36 AM Google It!
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It's been five days since I've done any 'blogging. I've scanned a few other blogs of course but written nothing. It's been a busy week. According to my count I have researched, written and delivered 17000 words or so since this day last week with all of the writing being done since Monday morning. I really didn't think I had it in me. Mood: very happy!
10:32:47 AM Google It!
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© Copyright 2003 David Stewart.
Last update: 24/06/2003; 20:57:29.
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