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| "I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
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| Topic: Miscellaneous |
4:02 am EDT, May 3, 2002 |
Flip: Do you like AD&D ? well im a really big fucking geek and think AD&D and pen and paper roleplaying is the most awsome thing ever heh , ever wonder what kinda D&D character youd be ? go here and take the test and find out , its pretty cool :) Tom: I'm a Chaotic Good Elven Bard Mage... Drizzt's Grove - Test |
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| Topic: Society |
7:11 pm EDT, May 2, 2002 |
Coming soon in a bookstore, video store or newsstand near you: a close-up recording of your examination of a girlie magazine or lusty movie, a left-wing weekly or a right-wing book. Your reactions go in the marketers' dossier on you, available for a fee to advertisers, telemarketers or political opposition researchers. HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson: "You never did have federal privacy rights." How would Bush like to have "observational research" in the Oval Office? William Safire on postmodern privacy. The Intrusion Explosion |
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Only Some Will Survive the Telecom Shakeout |
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| Topic: Economics |
2:52 am EDT, May 2, 2002 |
How do you tell the difference between the companies that are going to survive the shakeout among telecommunications service providers and those that will go belly-up? Every CEO running a phone company has studied the problem. When some number of customers stops buying, a company's remaining customers often come looking for discounts. It's exactly this double whammy of falling demand and falling prices that has hit telecommunications providers. ... Verizon will survive; Qwest is a definite maybe; WorldCom is on the ropes. ... Falling prices: $3,000 for an OC-3. A little over $12,000 for an OC-48. And dropping fast. I read an article earlier this week that mentioned a price of $2,000 for an OC-3. Cheap, cheap, cheap! It wasn't too long ago that all you could get for ~ $2k was a T-1. Only Some Will Survive the Telecom Shakeout |
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William F. Buckley Jr. on Mideast & Sharon on National Review Online |
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| Topic: Politics and Law |
1:00 am EDT, May 2, 2002 |
"Sharon's policy is scorched-earth. Under his command, the Israeli army has engaged not in isolating the infrastructure of the suicide terrorists. What he is engaged in is wanton damage. " Even William F. Buckley thinks Isreal has crossed the line... William F. Buckley Jr. on Mideast & Sharon on National Review Online |
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'Silence' Greets Webcasting Fees |
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| Topic: Politics and Law |
2:24 pm EDT, May 1, 2002 |
" LOS ANGELES -- Hundreds of Web radio stations are planning a "silent" protest on Wednesday against proposed royalty rates they say could bankrupt many members of the fledgling industry. " Web radio silent today... 'Silence' Greets Webcasting Fees |
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ACM: Ubiquity - Where the Algorithm Meets the Electronics |
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| Topic: Technology |
10:08 pm EDT, Apr 30, 2002 |
Prabhakar Raghavan, CTO at Verity, Inc., on building a secure foundation for information retrieval. On the Web: a few tens of TBytes. In enterprises: many orders of magnitude more than that. The technical challenges inside companies are very different from those for the Web. The primary factor is what we call "fine-grained security." In summary, fine-grained security is the ability to interlace search with security at the document and individual levels. A huge technical challenge! Another challenge is the diverse types of documents. I'll describe some of the framework for the solution ... Security is every bit as important as searching. This aspect of secure search is the foundation from which we build up deeper functionality ... [What] I think really is the harbinger of the future, is to invoke ideas from social network theory. Prabhakar Raghavan gave the most recent talk in the Dertouzos Lecturer Series, which I attended. In this interview, he's talking about some of the same topics. Worth reading (and thinking about). At the interface between academia and industry, the first few bits and pieces of a solution are starting to come together. At least people are now thinking about the right problems ... Additionally, Raghavan discusses his experiences working at IBM's Almaden laboratory. As I read this section, I was thinking about the future impact of IBM's recent sale of part (most?) of this lab to Hitachi. (See my recent log entry for more details.) ACM: Ubiquity - Where the Algorithm Meets the Electronics |
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Salon.com's subscription model. |
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| Topic: Economics |
9:54 pm EDT, Apr 30, 2002 |
"If a well-regarded general-interest site churning out daily, consistent, professional-grade content can convince only 1% of its readership to part with $30 a year, you might as well take the Web subscription model out behind the barn and distract it just long enough to put the shotgun to the back of its head. " This is a cynical view. The financial specifics are interesting. This is just funny: (from Salons Premium page) Salon Premium: It just gets better
Arianna Huffington explains why you should subscribe. Let it be known that I will never buy anything promoted by Arianna Huffington... Salon.com's subscription model. |
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Electronic Media Online -- Television and Media News |
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| Topic: Current Events |
9:44 pm EDT, Apr 30, 2002 |
"At least nine national cable networks have turned down a potentially lucrative -- though controversial -- ad schedule from the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. No national cable networks are known to have accepted the ads." Electronic Media Online -- Television and Media News |
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'Max Headroom' Is Coming to TechTV |
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| Topic: Miscellaneous |
12:43 pm EDT, Apr 30, 2002 |
He-he's b-back. Max Headroom, the original virtual character, is coming out of retirement. See the full series of this sci-fi classic beginning Friday, 5/3 at 6 p.m. Eastern only on TechTV. 'Max Headroom' Is Coming to TechTV |
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U.S. Blueprint to Topple Hussein Envisions Big Invasion Next Year |
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| Topic: Current Events |
1:51 am EDT, Apr 28, 2002 |
"The Bush administration, in developing a potential approach for toppling President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, is concentrating its attention on a major air campaign and ground invasion, with initial estimates contemplating the use of 70,000 to 250,000 troops." While this is no big secret, one wonders at the purpose of such specific and frank talk. Hoping for a concession? U.S. Blueprint to Topple Hussein Envisions Big Invasion Next Year |
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