] Can it really be President Bush's position
] that Taiwan is not permitted to hold any
] democratic referenda on any subjects whatsoever?
]
] The president's statement today is a mistake.
] Appeasement of a dictatorship simply invites
] further attempts at intimidation. Standing with
] democratic Taiwan would secure stability in East
] Asia. Seeming to reward Beijing's bullying
] will not.

I have to say I strongly support the NeoCons on this one. Bush's comments may be to our short term diplomatic advantage, but they are so at the price of being totally illogical. Should the people of Taiwan not be able to express their views on China through a democratic process? The mind boggles and the blood boils!

NeoCons oppose Bush on Taiwan

] He changed the computer industry. Now he's after the
] music business

A mixed bag of clue and deception.

He is dead on about electronic copy-protection, and the quality of file sharing services.

He is dead wrong about subscription based services. Cable companies, Netflix, XM... There are many examples of media subscription services. The advantage that these services might offer consumers is the ability to branch out and try different music with less risks. There is a real business there. Job's model is better for him because it is more conducive to selling hardware devices like ipods. Subscriptions are for streams.

His comment about copyright itself is nice in that he used the word invest rather then the word create. The funny thing is that he makes the argument about the need for investment, and then he undoes the argument by saying that the core problem with the music industry is that it invests too much! The fact is that improving technology has greatly reduced the need for investment, at least from a production and distribution standpoint. The only thing missing is marketing. If you can get to the point where a lot of people are listening to your music without really needing lots of capital, the question is whether you'll need the music industry when you get there.

He is wrong about VOD. Does my TIVO give me instant gratification? Why should I wait 24 hours for the next Simpsons episode when I can download it in 5?

Steve Jobs: The Rolling Stone Interview

You have until the 12th to submit your messages to NY on the world's largest LED sign. DO IT!

The Hello World Project 2/3

] Explanation: In 1787, astronomer William Herschel
] discovered the Eskimo Nebula. From the ground, NGC 2392
] resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood. In
] 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the Eskimo
] Nebula. From space, the nebula displays gas clouds so
] complex they are not fully understood. The Eskimo Nebula
] is clearly a planetary nebula, and the gas seen above
] composed the outer layers of a Sun-like star only 10,000
] years ago. The inner filaments visible above are being
] ejected by strong wind of particles from the central
] star. The outer disk contains unusual light-year long
] orange filaments.

WOW!

LB

The Eskimo Nebula from Hubble

] The Supreme Court refused Monday to intervene in a
] lawsuit over the hit song "Rosa Parks" by the
] Grammy-winning musical group OutKast.
]
] The action, taken without comment from the justices,
] means the 90-year-old civil rights figure can go ahead
] with her lawsuit against the band.

I think this case is a telling example of misuse of IP law. See the thread for my comments.

CNN.com - Supreme Court allows Rosa Parks to sue OutKast - Dec. 8, 2003

Rattle wrote:
] MemeStreams is a mini Google bomb for the people. Take your
] MemeStream title for instance.. Because if the way our pages
] interlink, if you are one of the people on this system who has
] used it actively for a long time and is highly recommended
] (yes, it matters, alot), you can pretty much pick your Google
] key words..

Very interesting...

RE: Google Time Bomb - Will Weblogs blow up the world's favorite search engine? - Microcontent News, a Corante.com Microblog

] Former Vice President Al Gore -- the Democratic party's
] presidential candidate in 2000 -- has decided to endorse
] former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean for the party's 2004
] presidential nomination, Democratic sources told CNN
] Monday.

CNN.com - Sources: Gore to endorse Dean - Dec. 8, 2003

] Adam identified a critical loophole in Google's
] algorithm. This article I'm writing may be about Google
] Bombs... but if enough sites linked to it using the
] phrase "Aunt Jemima," then this article might come up as
] the first search result for "Aunt Jemima." In other
] words, the linker can impact the Google Rank of the
] linkee.
]
] And thus was born the Google Bomb.

Explanation for recent funny google searches like "miserable failure." The "angry mob" threat model continues to find new applications.

Google Time Bomb - Will Weblogs blow up the world's favorite search engine? - Microcontent News, a Corante.com Microblog

The idea is not so much to predict the future as to consider the forces that will push the future along different paths, in order to help leaders recognize new possibilities, assess new threats and make decisions that reach much further into the future.

Seeing the Futures

] Diplomats from 191 countries meet this week in Geneva for
] the three-day United Nations World Summit on the
] Information Society. It's the occasion for The Helloworld
] Project to project thousands of 500-foot-high laser-light
] SMS messages onto the Geneva fountain.
]
] Internet users everywhere can post billboard thoughts
] almost instantly onto the fountain -- or onto the
] northern façade of New York's U.N. building, the face of
] a mountain in Rio de Janeiro or the front of a Bombay
] skyscraper.

Go Tell It on the Mountain