From Datamation
Headlines I Never Expected to Read
Warning sounded over 'flirting robots'
Microsoft pulls plug on potty-mouth Santa
How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
Your Computer Thinks You're Lazy
Cops: More Smoke Toad Venom to Get High
White House Mum On Destroyed CIA Tapes*
* Just kidding. This one's no surprise at all.
Posted by Chris Nerney at December 10, 2007 01:47 PM
Silence should be put on the endangered list.
We live out in the county. That is a way of saying 'out in the country' or 'out in the sticks' or 'out in the boonies'. Sure the road out front is two-lane blacktop. And yes, the "highway" that is half a mile away is two-lane blacktop as well but out here at the 12 Mile marker we are about as far away from things as a body can get. Why, any farther away and ya'll start gettin' closer to somethin' else. If you get my meaning, if ya'll catch my drift...
So I made a point of pausing the most excellent work of The James Quintet. That leaves only the chiclet clicking of this laptop's keyboard and the rhythmic ticking of the two battery driven clocks that are in audible range. If you open your mouth slightly (improves the acoustic resonance - lets you hear better) you can make out the low rain slick whisper of the occasional car on on the highway.
Returning from town this morning after dropping my eldest off early I absentmindedly reached to turn on the car radio. I thought to myself how comforting it would be to hear the familiar NPR Weekend Edition. Then I stopped (not the car) and asked just why is it so comforting?
Certainly it is familiar - like hearing from an old friend. It is part of my vehicular ritual - listening to NPR during my regular morning and afternoon commutes. I also noted that the sound of the radio covers a multitude of niggling little 'road' noises - those little audio reminders that I am driving a 10 year old car that really wants a little more TLC than it is receiving.
I occurs to me there is one other reason, one personal pressing reason that I want something on the radio, something comforting. I really don't want to be left in my own personal silence. I don't want to have to listen to myself. I don't want to hear what I truly have to say.
If sound were a drug I would be the worst kind of junkie. Jonesing when the music isn't playing. Getting the shakes and the delerium tremins when the TV isn't on and blaring. (How about those odd moments when the TV is on but the volume is off?) Heck fire, I've even taken to talking to myself just to fill up the silent spots.
Now I am curious. Just what would I say if I would just shut up and listen.
Thank you Betsy Devine ...
Our mother’s belief system, summed up in four lines: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without.”
From the wonderfully twisted mind of Platicus at Sandwich Flats... The "Fatal Attraction" Kitchen Set
I wan' it, I wan' it, I wan' it... NOW!
Here is something fun to say...
...a silicon photonic wave guide...I want one...or a few... hundred.
Joi Ito received this when attempting to access Twitter...
While the United Arab Emirates are well within their rights to block objectionable content it is imperative that we see first hand the result of their actions.
When I posted "Open little "w" windows - MinWin" I tried to put the best possible spin on a commodity that I grudgingly endorse, Microsoft Windows. As an IT professional I have to embrace Windows even if I find them contemptible. When I learned about MinWin I thought there might be some redeeming value... until I heard this
TWO THOUSAND AND TEN ?!?!?Monday, December 3
Maximum Wait for MinWin, Windows 7.0
Microsoft Partners: Use Of Downgrade Rights Is Surging
4:49 PM EST Mon. Dec. 03, 2007
Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) claims that adoption of Windows Vista and Office 2007 is chugging along nicely, with more than 88 million Vista licenses and 71 million Office licenses sold in the past year.But these numbers belie the fact that some organizations just don't see the value in upgrading to Vista and Office 2007, and are perfectly content with XP and Office 2003. Many solution providers are seeing surging interest in downgrade rights, which Microsoft offers to business users of both Vista and Office, and which allow companies to use previous versions of Microsoft software.
Emphasis mine! This is the final tolling of the Microsoft death knell. "Surging interest" in downgrading from Vista to XP means that Microsoft's income stream will shortly dry up to a trickle. Couple that with a 'wait until 2010' forecast for the future and I can only ask if Microsoft can survive its own desolation?
It used to be that Linux was a fringe alternative. Now it is looking like the mainstream choice.
Amid the raging controversy of whether blogging is dead comes a not so quiet report from Rebecca McKinnon ...
Is Web2.0 a wash for free speech in China?
This is a picture of Zhai Minglei's computer after his hard drive was removed and confiscated on Thursday.
Blogger and publisher of the recently-shut-down grassroots newspaper "Minjian," Zhai posted the photo on Friday along with an account of the questioning he had undergone that afternoon. See John Kennedy's translation of Zhai's Thursday blog post describing how his home was raided. Friday's post is a long account, which hopefully somebody will translate in full. His hard drive was returned to him, with "Minjian"-related material removed.
...and I am prepared for the worst. This is the price to be paid in struggling for freedom of speech and media freedom.China: NGO blogger’s house raided, hard drive confiscated
Published by November 29th, 2007
...In an urgent post [zh] on 1bao this morning, Zhai writes:
At just after 10 this morning, on November 29, 2007, five people from the Shanghai Municipality Cultural Market Administrative Enforcement Squad (three men, two women) suddenly showed up at my home. Three of them produced identification, two did not, and they proceeded to search through every room and every corner of my house. Even the paper in my printer was confiscated, along with my last remaining copies of the forty-one issues of Minjian. At the same time, they demanded to search my home computer. They searched through files on the computer, and even removed the hard drive which they took with them. The reason they gave was my involvement in work on the illegal publication Minjian.
I told them:
1. Minjian is internal material pertaining to the Civil Society Center at Sun Yat-sen University, and not something I have published privately.
2. Minjian is non-profit.
3. Minjian contains nothing pornographic reactionary or related to religious minorities.I respectfully asked them to work appropriately and in good faith as they carry out their work.
As they left, they told me that on the afternoon of the 30th, tomorrow, I am scheduled to undergo an investigation.This is most likely connected to the notice I posted online informing readers of Minjian’s closure [zh], and I am prepared for the worst. This is the price to be paid in struggling for freedom of speech and media freedom.
Fortunately, I was able to express myself fully in [zh] the online notice, and it is also my formal statement in this matter: the shutting down of Minjian was illegal, a violation of academic freedom, of freedom of the press, and of media freedom in general.
Zhai signs off in a solemn, but carefully-worded tone; Minjian translates to ‘the civil,’ or ‘that among the people’:
Pass this news on to as many readers as possible, tell them to take proper care of Minjian, to appeal on behalf of Minjian.
[…]
Yours,Zhai Minglei
November 29, 2007
Microsoft has driven the last nail in Vista's coffin if the reports about MinWin are true.
From an end-user and "integrator" perspective this means never having to say I am Vista. It also means another 12-18 month delay before I make another significant Microsoft investment.Microsoft Partners: MinWin Could Soothe Vista Headaches
7:19 PM EST Fri. Nov. 30, 2007
In the year that has passed since Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) released Windows Vista to business users, the operating system has gained a reputation in the channel as a bloated memory hog that many companies are avoiding like a trip to the dentist.But Microsoft partners have a more positive opinion of Windows 7, the next generation of Windows that Microsoft expects to ship in the 2010 timeframe. That's because Windows 7 will be based on MinWin, a scaled down version of the Windows core that will also serve as the framework for Windows Server and Windows Media Center.
MinWin's source code base takes up about 25 megabytes on disk, compared to about 4 gigabytes for Vista. Solution providers see this as a sign that Microsoft has learned its lesson from trying to cram too much into the Windows OS, and some feel that Windows 7 will be a roaring success in the market.
At the recommendation of the august Blogist and Philosopher Frank Paynter I clicked on a link that took me to the writings of Ben Paynter. Most specifically the article in The Pitch - Don't Look Down.
Ben, you've done it again!
Who plants trees although he knows he'll never sit in their shadows has at least begun to recognize the sense of life. - Anonymous
Our forefathers should be forewarned
about the potential abuse of forearms...
Thanks to The Way I Think for the pic
As I have posted earlier I have no love for FaceBook. So it is sort of antithetical that I offer the solution to FB's privacy issues.
According to the WSJ's informal survey some 60+% of FB users would not like their friends to automatically be notified if they bought Prada or tickets to see Lion King. Ok, the answer is simple.
FB users should be notified that X number of their friends have bought the latest Stephen King thriller. Then privacy is maintained. No specific user is named. But the endorsement is implicit. AND the unknown aspect of X will only server to create a greater conversation (reads more FB traffic = more FB revenue.)
Somebody over at FB owes me a nice fat check!
In a recent segment broadcast on NPR about Privacy I heard (paraphrasing)
'A potential employer might discover something about me that I hadn't intended them to find.'The segment was concerning the publishing of personal information on sites like Facebook or MySpace and that employers were 'researching' prospective employees as a part of the vetting process.
Chris Sanders, who claims to be full of I.T., said he was thankful for growing up here-abouts...in Kentucky...just a bit west of here...
I can’t say that I will stay in Graves County for the rest of my life, as we all know how twists and turns can throw things off course. I will however, guarantee that no matter where I go and what I accomplish, I will always be Chris Sanders from Mayfield, KY. That would be about 30 miles southwest of Possum Trot, 40 miles southeast of Monkey’s Eyebrow, and about 10 miles north of the state line….just in case you were wondering….Way to go Chris... now they will never leave you alone. Prolly be two or three more people a week be round to look you up. :)
J. C. Penney is opening at 04:00 (AM for those not on a 24 hour clock) ...
Need I say more?
...or the best justice that money can buy?.
Nov. 20, 2007
York Capital Management's proposed Asset Purchase Agreement and its associated credit agreement for SCO make it clear that if the bankruptcy court lets York buy SCO, that York will be bankrolling SCO's continued lawsuits against Novell, IBM and other Linux-using companies.
Groklaw published the APA and its associated credit agreement during the last few days. The most interesting aspects of the proposed deal are in the credit agreement.
York, a private equity firm, is offering a complex purchase agreement for SCO. While the total amount of the deal comes to $36 million, a close look reveals SCO would get $10 million in cash and what amounts to a $10 million line of credit to use to continue its legal fights with Novell and IBM.
...
While you would be hard pressed to find anyone who believes SCO's claims that Unix code is hidden within Linux after almost five years of lawsuits without any real evidence, York, if it can get the bankruptcy court to approve its bid for SCO, is willing to take a small bet that somehow profits may yet be reaped from SCO's lawsuits.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware will hold a hearing on the proposed sale on Dec. 5.
