Posts for June 2006
Timesink #1124...
OK, found a new way to avoid constructivity...UltraCorps! And old-school, turn-based conquest and exploration game, played via the browser. It's VERY cool! Roy and I are having it out right now (I think free registration is required to observe...but you should be signing up anyway!), while we wait for some of our other geek buddies to get brave enough to join the fun...*grin*
June 30, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Interesting posts of the day
Some great stuff in my RSS feeds when I sat down after dinner tonight:
- Sean McGrath points to an interesting looking protocol launch: AMQP; an open-sourced (spec/protocol) for asynchronous message queueing.
- I bumped into rynsc.net's philosophy for handling "gag order" secret warrants: the
warrant canary
. It's a weekly cryptographically signed assertion that they've never been served a warrant, date stamped, and also including current event data, so they can't be "pre-written" (clever, that). If they ever stop releasing them, though... - The Brain Waves column noted that companies are beginning to offering lie detection services via fMRI. Holy 5th Amendment, Batman! How are you going to plead the 5th from your own brain? Suffice it to say that the privacy implications are worth discussing. I'm not even sure what side I'm on; I'd love to see it's use on government officials, in addition to it's use by them. If you've never considered the implications of such a device, James Halperin's Truth Machine is a great story using that very hook. Recommended.
June 22, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Cory Doctorow hits a grand slam...
Holy shit...Cory Doctorow just knocked the ball out of the park WRT the This American Life
deep linking issue. I just wish I could be half as cogent:
June 22, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
More about Jon Udell, TAL, and such
Without a doubt, the takedown request story from Jon Udell and Jared Benedict is really worth continued discussion. There are a lot of issues involved that are important to the BlogoPodoSphere, and a lot of well-spoken folks have tossed in their two cents:
- Jon's great initial post has disappeared, unfortunately; a voluntary takedown
- Jared Benedict's writeup is great, from the POV of one of the principals
- Dave Slusher nails it, IMO, with This American Life Doesn't Get It
- I don't agree with Nicholas Carr's take on the situation, but it bears linking to and thinking about
I've chatted with Jon via email over it, and it's obvious that yesterday was a tough day for him. There are points to be made on all sides of the argument, and I believe he struggled to do "the right thing". While I'm disappointed in PRI and This American Life, I'm (unfortunately) not surprised. It's so hard for modern corporate media (which NPR/PRI are definitely a part of) to grok the "share it, and good things will come" ethos.
My true disappointment, though, is in the loss of Jon's post. I think I understand his reasons behind it, but it leaves a hole in the center of the conversation that will inevitably be filled with half-truths, hearsay, and rumor. But hopefully also with thoughtful replies, conversation, and good links to further info.
June 21, 2006 permalink | Comments (2)
Clueless on the InterWeb
Ah, another day, another outrage^H,^H,^H...er, Net misstep. Jon Udell has received a takedown notice for his custom RSS feed from the webmaster of NPR PRI (note: deliberate lack of link here...they've made me cranky). Whiskey...Tango...Foxtrot? Sheesh. Newsflash, Mr. Webmaster; Jon is not STEALING YOUR MP3s. He, in fact, is sending you traffic. Increasing your readership. Raising your profile (heh, he's really raised it now!). He's posting LINKS, not copies of your files. You know, links...how that InterWebby thing works???
Makes me glad that I stopped listening to basically anything on the radio. (review of my new FM transmitter is way overdue on Nerdware). In the car, I'm 100% podcast now, and loving it. These people LIKE having even the entire MP3 redistributed. How wacky.
I'll be interested to see how Jon's situation
works out. Hang tough, Jon!
UPDATE: It's PRI, not NPR that's the copyright holder; changed above.
MORE UPDATE: Wow. In a further surprising development, Jon Udell has dropped the original post entirely.
YET MORE UPDATE: Heh...my boingboing submission on the topic was accepted. This should be interesting. I also got a long, thoughtful email response from Jon himself...if he's alright with it, I may post some bits later.
June 20, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Randi Challenge Log Online!
Oh heeellll...this rocks. In case you're not familiar with it, the James Randi Educational Foundation has a standing one million dollar prize for any individual who can show proper evidence of supernatural powers. A bit from the FAQ: The Foundation is committed to providing reliable information about paranormal claims. It both supports and conducts original research into such claims. At JREF, we offer a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.
Now, I've known about the Million Dollar Challenge for a long time, and I've heard interviews with Randi where he tells great stories about various challengers. But I had no idea...that they keep the log of challengers on a forum at the website, complete with the various back and forth emails!
I mean, does it get better than this:
- GERALD EPLING - Shimmering Leaf Inventor:
I do claim that an egg can sense my intention or action involved with boiling another cohort egg. This is the essence of my paranormal claim.
- PETER HUBINKSY, I WALK THE LINE:
I have found that my presence creates telekinetic/teleportation phenomenon which rearranges and/or teleports random objects in open and closed spaces. Random telekinetically and teleported objects appear in spaces where there are loose debris such as small stones, bits of plastic, metal, glass, leaves, paperclips, etc.
- Baltazar Lopez, Mexican "??????????":
As SECOND TEST I propose, U can take a photograph of me!! get a machine like Kirlian or similar so U can see my special energy!! it's real!!
And that's just a sample. My life is complete. I may never leave the randi.org site again...
June 15, 2006 permalink | Comments (1)
Never QUITE finished...
Heck. Having Google Notebook as a platform for saving my in process blog posts from accidental destruction is cool...but now I have a bunch of long, mostly finished, not complete, unposted blog entries in Google Notebook! And I'm playing "polish, polish, polish...". Dang it! Expect some long, mostly finished rants on here directly.
June 14, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Thanks, Mr. Davis!
So...I get in the car yesterday morning, and turn on the radio to discover that the Air America affliate...is gone! Zoinks!! At least a couple of those shows I like!
Turns out that 1690AM changed hands last month, and the new owner has moved the programming over from his other station, 1160AM (which has a lower-power license). 1160AM is "a mix of opera, R&B, jazz and arts criticism"...and not very much to my tastes.
Silver lining, though. Because I really don't like broadcast radio all that much, but I hadn't been given enough of a push to buy a new FM transmitter for my media player (my old one is battery-only [vs. having a car plug], and eats batteries for breakfast). Now I have said incentive! Now broadcast radio goes bye-bye. Thanks, Mr. Davis!
June 13, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Comment posting bug fixed...
OK, all you fans that haven't been able to comment since the "magic-removal" migration; rejoice. Lee kindly pointed out the error (funnily enough, as I was viewing my web server logs. I might have caught it myself given another 10 minutes or so, but Lee definitely gets the credit here), and I've fixed the error. I ran part of the upgrade (for the comments section) for the wrong backend, and missed some objects that needed to be updated in the database.
Back to commenting, minions of Ken! *grin* Thanks, Lee!
June 13, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
An open reply...
I realize Mr. Romero of the ACLU probably isn't able to respond to individual emails, so I figured I'd just toss this out here. Nothing major; I just felt like venting.
On Thu, Jun 08, 2006 at 08:01:05AM -0500, Anthony D. Romero wrote: > > Dear Ken, > > Thank you for renewing as a card-carrying member of the ACLU! >
Thank President Bush, Attorney General Gonzales, and Senator Specter. *grin* They reminded me how important work like yours and the EFF's is. (EFF is next for renewal!)
> I am glad to know that you share our commitment to defending freedom. I pledge to you the best > efforts of everyone at the ACLU as we work together to protect liberty. > > Sincerely, > > Anthony D. Romero > Executive Director > American Civil Liberties Union
I look forward to doing anything I can to help! I expect we have our work cut out for us...
June 8, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Magic Removal in the house!
Whew! After a bit of trial and tribulation, I've managed to get my site back onto the Django main code trunk again. This involved "removing the magic" -- the Django dudes checked in a bunch of backwards-incompatible (but mostly really good) code changes to the Django trunk about a month ago, and I've been putting off doing the necessary site work needed to "go live" with the new stuff. Because I'm lazy. *grin* Plus, massive migrations scare the bejeezus out of me (I've seen enough go awry in my day job), and I HATE the thought of losing my stuff!
But nothing to fear; all is done, and everything appears to be ok now. Couple of tricky issues with some of the less-frequently used functionality (feeds, mostly), but overall I'm very satisified. If you read this site, and you notice any weird issues, please let me know. I've tested everything I can think of (RSS feeds, commenting, etc.)...but I may have missed something.
The good news is that now I can get back to site updates. I held off on new functionality, b/c adding new stuff in the old branch would just mean more fixes when I flipped the switch. I'm over that hump now; joy! I've got several ideas I want to add.
June 7, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Google Notebook
Hmmm...after hearing Cam and Rich rant and rave about this thing for two or three podcasts, I decided to check it out. Very cool! I definitely see uses. I'm yet again dumping data into the Google silo, of course...it'll be REALLY cool if a GData API for Google Notebook shows up.
Backpack has some similar functionality, and includes an API...but loses out on the "no Firefox extension" front. Hm...I should doublecheck that. I haven't checked the Backpack blog recently; if they DO have a Firebox/Greasemonkey extension now, that would be cool! The API for Backpack kicks butt...I've used it before, and it works like a champ. Python wrapper and everything!
Snap! There's a Backpack It! Greasemonkey user script...let the contest begin! Who will win the notes o' Kenzoid...Google or Backpack?
June 5, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Earlier posts -- Later posts
