End of an era...
Sony Killing Off Floppy Disk Production in 2011
1:00 PM - April 26, 2010 by Jane McEntegart -
source: Tom's Hardware US
Sony Japan has said it will cease production of floppy disks next year.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Three Standard Laws
I, Standards Body
from Scripting News
On my drive east earlier this month I read a bunch of audio books, including Isaac Asimov's I, Robot. It's basically a collection of short stories built around the assumption that we create robots that obey three laws at their core.
. . .
It struck me, thinking about how the W3C and IETF are controlled by the big tech companies, and how they serve their interests, often in conflict with the interests of users, that perhaps a new kind of standards body is needed. One which never takes money from tech companies, and has its own version of the three laws.
The restated laws:
1. A standard may not injure users or, through inaction, allow users to come to harm.
2. Standard-compliant software must obey any orders given to it by users, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A standard must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.Dave Winer's next line really struck a harmonic chord with me, "Users are supreme. Tech companies are not even part of the charter of a human-serving standards body. They may use the standards, but we don't care one way or the other if they continue to profit, or even exist."
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Probable-Possible
Probable-Possible, my black hen,
She lays eggs in the Relative When.
She doesn't lay eggs in the Positive Now
Because she's unable to postulate How.
Poem-A-Day: Dorothy Parker, The Passionate Freudian to His Love
The Passionate Freudian to His Love
Only name the day, and we'll fly away
In the face of old traditions,
To a sheltered spot, by the world forgot,
Where we'll park our inhibitions.
Come and gaze in eyes where the lovelight lies
As it psychoanalyzes,
And when once you glean what your fantasies mean
Life will hold no more surprises.
When you've told your love what you're thinking of
Things will be much more informal;
Through a sunlit land we'll go hand-in-hand,
Drifting gently back to normal.
While the pale moon gleams, we will dream sweet dreams,
And I'll win your admiration,
For it's only fair to admit I'm there
With a mean interpretation.
In the sunrise glow we will whisper low
Of the scenes our dreams have painted,
And when you're advised what they symbolized
We'll begin to feel acquainted.
So we'll gaily float in a slumber boat
Where subconscious waves dash wildly;
In the stars' soft light, we will say good-night—
And "good-night!" will put it mildly.
Our desires shall be from repressions free—
As it's only right to treat them.
To your ego's whims I will sing sweet hymns,
And ad libido repeat them.
With your hand in mine, idly we'll recline
Amid bowers of neuroses,
While the sun seeks rest in the great red west
We will sit and match psychoses.
So come dwell a while on that distant isle
In the brilliant tropic weather;
Where a Freud in need is a Freud indeed,
We'll always be Jung together.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Tech FAIL - The blank registration form.
To round out the rant let me be clear - such "Conferences" are thinly veiled captured audience SALES pitches. So, if you want me to sit through you promotion the very least you can do is fill out the form for me (which I know is possible as a few do come that way. But not many).
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
R.I.P. Benjamin Hooks
Benjamin Hooks, Civil Rights Champion, Dies At 85
Longtime civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks has died. The Baptist minister and lawyer is best remembered as head of the NAACP, which was struggling and in debt when Hooks took it over in 1977. By the time he stepped down 15 years later, membership had grown by several hundred thousand. Hooks died early Thursday at his home in Memphis, Tenn., after a long illness. He was 85.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Family of Seven
Documenting the undocumented: How one company counts the “invisible poor”
Melanie Edwards knew there was a problem when market researchers had more information on the video game habits of American teenagers than on the populations of African nations.
. . .
What are the consequences of knowing so little about so many?
I like to equate it to a family of seven. There are seven billion people in the world, that’s the family of seven. Four of the members in our family, we don’t know anything about. We don’t know about their education levels. We don’t know about their health conditions. You can imagine if four of your siblings were ill or illiterate or unemployed, that would have a big impact on the family as a whole.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Better the devil you know?
From the New York Times...
Protesters From Kansas Take Aim at Miners
By BERNIE BECKER
Published: April 8, 2010
MONTCOAL W.V. — Protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., headed to the Upper Big Branch mine Thursday morning to convey the message that the explosion there that left 25 miners dead was a result of e-mail messages allegedly sent from West Virginia threatening the Church and its publisher, according to a statement from the Church.
Related
The church, which is led by Fred Phelps, has attracted attention in recent years by showing up at funerals for soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. At those funerals they carry signs that say that God hates homosexuality and that the death of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is God’s way of punishing the United States for its tolerance of it.
“This whole nation is awash in rebellious sin and defiance of God, His standard, and His servant’s faithful words,” a news release on the church’s Web site said Thursday morning.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
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