I will be at Interz0ne this weekend.

Decius informed me last night that he may not be able to make it, so I may be doing the MemeStreams panel alone. Lets hope he makes it, because I don't have as much prepared as I'd like to (as usual), and will likely wind up roughing most of my talk. Users, come armed with questions and comments.. This is a good opportunity to get some feedback, discuss ways to use the system, etc.. Expect the answer for a number of things to be "its on the way, but we gotta do a bunch of stuff first"...

There may be another update to the Social Network portion of the site for the con, but I'm not entirely sure yet if I'm going to have enough time to finish it.. Time is tight and this week turned out to be more chaotic then expected.

The MemeStreams panel is going to be on Saturday in room A1 at 3PM CST, directly after Randal Schwartz's panel on "Learning Perl". I learned perl from his books, and MemeStreams is in perl, so I'm in awe of this..

I'm also booked for a panel in the same room on Saturday at 8PM CST. Its tentative title is "RANT!". I have no idea what I'm expected to talk about at this one. I'm pretty sure I'm being setup for something. Judging from the title picked for me, I'm just expected to stand there and rant. Fine, I can do that. Done it in the past.. Infact, I'm pretty much expected to do it at these.. Its shocking.. Based on con history, this panel will go on for about 30 minutes before I completely lose control of it.. 8PM on Satuday night a con like Interz0ne means one thing, most people who show up to the panel will be consuming large amounts of booze.. I expect people to be mixing things in buckets and such madness.. The slot after me is something about girls and webcams. This is clearly the point in the night where it has been determined that madness will decend, and its been handed to me.. Yum yum.

I'll be available for private consulting sessions and drunken debauchery all weekend.

MemeStreams at Interz0ne

] In the old days, staff members in the nine-branch Santa
] Cruz Public Library System would destroy discarded
] paperwork as time allowed, typically once a week.
]
] But at a meeting of library officials last week, it was
] decided the materials should be shredded daily.
]
] "The basic strategy now is to keep as little historical
] information as possible," said Anne M. Turner, director
] of the library system.
]
] The move was part of a campaign by the Santa Cruz
] libraries to demonstrate their opposition to the Patriot
] Act, the law passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks
] that broadened the federal authorities' powers in
] fighting terrorism.

Librarians Use Shredder to Show Opposition to New F.B.I. Powers

] The new Department of Homeland Security lacks the
] resources and expertise to execute the core elements of
] the Bush administration's cybersecurity plan, the
] president's former cybersecurity adviser told Congress
] yesterday.
]
] In his first appearance on Capitol Hill since leaving the
] White House in February, Richard A. Clarke warned
] lawmakers against the "dangerous" tendency to dismiss the
] consequences of an attack on the nation's computer
] networks.

Ex-Officials Urge U.S. To Boost Cybersecurity (TechNews.com)

] This is an apartment for the ULTIMATE Star Trek Fan.
] Originally a Studio Apartment but after just over 3 years
] it has been transformed into the interior of the starship
] Enterprise. Designed and built by Interior Designer Tony
] Alleyne the Star Trek Apartment has made world news and
] been featured on TV shows, magazines, radio shows, and
] newspapers all around the world. There are also many
] sites featuring the Star Trek Apartment on the internet.
] There will be more television coverage of the Star Trek
] Apartment and the man who designed it on British TV this
] summer 2003. The show is 'Other People's Houses' on
] Channel 4. For someone looking for traditional living and
] design this is NOT for you. But for someone looking to
] own something just a little bit different.....WELL! There
] are more interior shots at this site:
] http://community.webshots.com/user/aja24

Your very own Star Trek Apartment? Only 2 Million dollars!!!

] At Macworld, out-of-work dot-commers pose as marauding
] clowns. The authorities are not amused.

Salon.com Technology | Send in the iKlowns

"On April 7, 2003 in a world created by Osamu Tezuke, Astro Boy, a robot with the heart of a man, is born.

"The day is here/

"Exactly how close has time been able to catch up with Astro Boy?"

ROBODEX 2003

quoted:
===

Who Armed Iraq? A Ranting Screeds Special Report: It's come up often, and it's apparently becoming more common, not less, for critics, especially Our European Friends, to claim that America armed Iraq, especially in the '80s. So it falls to me, apparently, to list the facts.

For the purpose of investigating these charges, it is best to look at what Iraq had at the time of its invasion of Kuwait, because the accusations pertain to what Iraq was supplied with (passive voice deliberate here) in the decade or so preceding this invasion. Thus we need to account for whatever Iraq lost during the conflict to insure that there aren't any omissions (thus nixing possible accusations that America destroyed whatever it gave Iraq during the war to hide the evidence).

The main sources for the below are the Desert Shield Fact Book (Frank Chadwick, Loren Wiseman et al, GDW 1991) and the Gulf War Fact Book (Frank Chadwick, Matt Caffrey et al, GDW 1991). Equipment will be listed by category, along with the nation of origin. For those scoring at home, items of AMERICAN origin will be highlighted thusly, and of European (FRANCE) likewise. As of 90/91, Iraq had the following:

Ranting Screeds - Who Armed Iraq?

quoted:
===

By Andrew Sullivan

Jan. 24, 2003 | It was an all-red, over-the-banner Drudge headline, guaranteed to grab attention. "MAG: 25% OF NEW HIV-INFECTED GAY MEN SOUGHT OUT VIRUS, SAYS SAN FRAN HEALTH OFFICIAL." Drudge was referring to a four-page story by one Gregory A. Freeman, in Rolling Stone magazine, owned by gay media mogul Jann Wenner. It was quickly picked up by conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity, who never misses an opportunity to denigrate gay men. For many who witnessed the media onslaught, it will soon be accepted as fact.

That's a shame, because not long after hitting the newsstands, the story has completely fallen apart.

The story centers on a bizarre sub-subcultural phenomenon known as "bug chasing." A few HIV- negative gay men, for all sorts of deep and dark psychological reasons, appear actually to be seeking out HIV infection. Some HIV-positive men, it is also alleged, are just as willing to infect these troubled souls with HIV. This disturbing phenomenon is not new. There were occasional stories about it in the late 1990s, stories that fueled an urban legend but that never made it to the mainstream. Why? Because of simple lack of hard evidence that anyone but a very few disturbed people were involved.

Salon.com | Sex- and death-crazed gays play viral Russian Roulette!

as a fan of the Mcrib Sandwich, I am shocked and amazed by the following:

quoted:
===

Natick, Mass. -- Despite military chow's lousy reputation, many products that Northern California grocery shoppers buy every day have come from innovations created for the battlefield.

M&Ms were invented so World War II fighters could enjoy chocolate that didn't melt in the heat of the Pacific. Similarly, tins of processed Velveeta cheese and Spam became prominent parts of the American diet after thousands of World War II soldiers survived on the processed food.

Freeze-dried coffee and soup mixes, chopped and formed meat and lightweight backpacker entrees all have come from military needs. So did something called "retort packaging," a heat and water process much like canning that keeps plastic pouches of food shelf-stable for years. Even McDonald's boneless McRib sandwich came from technology developed by the Department of Defense's Combat Feeding Directorate.

Right at home in the market / How M&Ms, Spam and Velveeta made it to the table

] U.S. forces near Baghdad found a weapons cache of around
] 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical
] weapons, the U.S. news station National Public Radio
] reported on Monday.
]
] NPR, which attributed the report to a top official with
] the 1st Marine Division, said the rockets, BM-21
] missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and
] were "ready to fire." It quoted the source as saying new
] U.S. intelligence data showed the chemicals were "not
] just trace elements."

The 4-minute NPR audio from today's "Morning Edition" can be listened to here:

 http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1223246

Note: This is not an eyewitness report. It's an interview with an NPR reporter who was told by an official from the Marines who said he'd heard it from the intelligence network. Enough degrees of separation to treat the report with skepticism, but enough detail to definitely be of interest!

U.S. Finds Missiles with Chemical Weapons