] RadioParadise -- Eclectic Intelligent Rock

First Poe, then Led Zep. Ambient Techno to Alternative Country. Combinations here are strange but good. I like it.

RadioParadise webcast station

] (Dave) Winer says. "This is not a place for innovation.
] I've given up."

LA Times feature on Sillicon Valley... The wasteland...

Special Silicon Valley Issue

] Profound changes have been taking place in American
] foreign policy, reversing consistent bipartisan
] commitments that for more than two centuries have earned
] our nation greatness.

Jimmy Carter's recent essay.

Just War - Jimmy Carter

I found this interesting. Olga Utkina, a female bodyguard. Talks about how females are now competitive, as clients in Moscow have gone from wanting "bruisers" to "shooters". Muscles don't so much matter when you got ace gals with gats.

This reminded me of Molly in Neurmancer in a pleasant way.

A Female Bodyguard Fights Back

Rattle wrote:
] Dave Winer wrote:
] ] There's an essay lurking in here, but I've been reluctant
] ] to write it. Here's what it would say. Up till now Google
] ] has done really well with the low-key,
] ] we-let-our-software-speak-for-us approach to public
] ] relations. But that method doesn't work now. People are
] ] confused about what Google is.
]
] Ok. Good. I'm glad I saw this. I'm not nuts. Apparently,
] I'm also not the only one trying to wean myself off Google.

Wow, this "Google is Evil" meme is really starting to gain traction! It kind of reminds me of that time when everyone suddenly decided that Michael Jackson wasn't cool anymore. Next thing we heard from the guy, he was having sex with a monkey!

Its been a long time since Wired Magazine started a successful Meme. I thought we all decided that Wired was evil back when they put Push Technology on the cover. I thought we all said we were going to stop reading Wired. Right!? I think you guys are all a bunch of closet Wired readers! Um, well, actually I guess I would have had to have read Wired in order to know that they started this meme, so I guess I'll just shut up about that.

So, Google... I mean, the thing is, like, Google has *60* PHDs! **60** The computer science department at Georgia Tech doesn't have *60* PHDs! What the hell do these people DO?? Yeah, Google works really well, and its really hard to scale something like to that level, and I respect that and so on and so forth, but *60* PHDs. It just doesn't seem like Google has changed all that much while I've been using it. It doesn't take a PHD to load DMOZ data into your website! If I had 60 PHDs for as long as Google has had them I'd have revolutionized the entire computing industry by now!

To be fair to Google, I use their news agent every day. That is new. And its hard. And they don't make any money off of it. They are aggregating all the news content for me and they are doing it for free. Its hard to be a jerk to someone who does something like that for you.

And they bought Pyra. The thing is that Pyra had VC funding. There are influential people (like Tim O'Reilly) who have a need to sell Pyra to someone, so Pyra got bought. I wish I had VC funding. In an interview this week Marc Andresson said that the reason no one is getting funding right now is because "there aren't any good ideas."

Ok Marc, let me explain something. I know that your mom said that "TV would rot your brain" and when you got older you found out that TV really doesn't rot your brain. But that stuff those guys in East Palo Alto are selling you... It really really does rot your brain. We're serious this time. Really. We mean it. STOP smoking crack. Stay OUT of East Palo Alto.

OK, so am I going to stop using Google? I don't know. To be honest with you, I really didn't want to stop listening to Michael Jackson. I liked Michael Jackson. But I didn't have a choice. Any kid caught listening to Michael Jackson in 1987 was better off dead. I had to stop. It just wasn't cool anymore and my friends just weren't going to have any of it. Maybe it will be the same way with Google. Maybe I'll have to rename my Google toolbar link to "Altavista" and hope nobody clicks on it. Maybe I'll have to become a closet Googler.

Of course, maybe Google will take Pyra and turn it into MemeStreams, but better then anything we've produced. Maybe MemeStreams will fade into obscurity. Maybe when I explain it to people they'll say "Oh, its basically another Bloogle." And I'll really want to kill them. Then I'll stop using Google. Because it will just piss me off. I'll bet thats what Dave Winer is feeling.

Google is Evvile

] A country’s potential to warrant a U.S. military response
] is inversely related to its globalization connectivity.

There are some excellent observations in this article about the way that 911 focused the US military establishment on real problems and the way that military organization is changing. However, I'm not sure if I buy the primary premise, that lack of connectivity produces threats. The guy lists Yemen as an "end of the earth" from a globalisation perspective. I'm not expert on the middle east, but I'm pretty sure that observation is about 180 degress from correct. If I recall correctly, Yemen is one of the most cosmopolitain places in the Middle East, where immigrants outnumber naturalized citizens like 10 to 1. They are really really well connected.

So why are they a threat? Because, and really he does get to this in the essay but I think this point deserves much more emphasis, telecommunications and transportation technology have ended the relationship between ideology and geography. To be sure, if you grow up in a place that is poor, oppressed, and war torn, you are more likely to consider violence as an option then someone who grows up comfortable. However, is it really possible to remove right wing militia or left wing black blocs from the global security equation? Are these people less dangerous then Al'Q?

The lines will be drawn idealogically and not in terms of nationality, whether we like it or not. I think the fact that this guy is still leaning toward drawing lines on a map is evidence that he hasn't fully groked what is going on.

To paraphrase the Matrix, "There is no map."

The Pentagon's New Map

] "My goal was to say farewell to 20th-century Korean
] journalism, with the concept that every citizen is a
] reporter," said Mr. Oh, a wiry, intense man whose mobile
] phone never stops ringing.

Oh my the South Koreans are blowing the American's doors off. They rocketed from Agrarian to Industrial culture in about 20 years, and they haven't slowed down. If you want to know what MemeStreams will become, this is it.

Online Newspaper Shakes Up Korean Politics

] The only point of this site is to find out as much as
] possible about a North Korean military nuclear
] installation disguised as a subway.

Explore North Korea. See the communist murals and the "extras" that hang around when visitors are present. Listen to North Korean muisc. Check out the fallout shelter. Wonder at the futility of it all...

The Pyongyang Metro

] Tokyo--Toshiba Corporation today announced the
] world's first prototype of a small form factor
] direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) for portable PCs, a
] clean energy breakthrough with the potential to end
] reliance on rechargeable batteries. The new fuel cell
] currently realizes average output of 12W and maximum
] output of 20W, and can achieve approximately five hours
] of operation with a single cartridge of fuel. It provides
] instant power supply, and achieves significant advances
] in operating times with replaceable methanol cartridges.

This thing is a little large, but its a step in the right direction. Ultimately I see these things enabling more home robotics. Power consumption is one of the most challenging thing about effective household automation.

Toshiba announces laptop fuel cell.

] Digital broadcaster Pseudo.com plans to release a weekly
] TV show hosted by rap star Ice-T on the Internet
] file-sharing network Kazaa, in attempts to start a new
] model of advertising-supported television.

Pseudo spins hip-hop TV show on Kazaa | CNET News.com