just read it

[ Indeed. Fricking hawk fuckers. -k]

Doonesbury@Slate - Daily Dose

] Globalization starts with getting the details right.
] Inconsistent use of SI units and international
] standard paper sizes remain today a primary
] cause for U.S. businesses failing to meet
] the expectations of the global economy.

[ Fascinating read! I'm down with being unique, except in the cases where the US can't seem to play nice with the rest of the world. Standards people, STANDARDS! I want metric now.

And while i'm dreaming, i want web browsers to conform to their respective specs and standards too... for fucks sake. -k]

A4 Paper Format / International Standard Paper Sizes

] They said the Lamborghini will be used on the
] Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway in southern Italy, for
] emergencies and to transport organs for transplant.

[ Who gets to drive it? Like, what kind of baddass cop must you be to get the Gallardo. And do you have to take race driving lessons? I know cops are good drivers and highly trained, but I don't think they're accustommed to a car that can do 200mph... pretty awesome. i hope the siren/lightbar doesn't rip off the top... -k]

Italian cops get a Lamborghini

From a Session at E3:

Jim: There’s a huge appeal of games for women.
But women are not going to go into stores to
buy a game, however if you put it in the home
and make it easy for them to get.. ok there’s
a porn analogy here, but you make it available
to them and they can sample it, it’s a great
way of introducing them. You have to break the
mould, change the development techniques and
marketing techniques.

Russell: My wife loves games, and she’s my
test case for a long time because she’d only
play what I brought home, or ask for something.
She wouldn’t go out and buy something.
This speaks volumes for the digital download model.

Gerhard: I disagree. The second biggest buying
group is females, in the UK. Mothers, of course,
they don’t play them but they will buy them. I
don’t think there’s any problem about going into
a shop.

...

So you put an xbox playable disk on the cover of
a women’s magazine, say.

...

Jay: Not on the magazine. On the phone. Put it on
a device that’s a natural part of their lifestyle.

Jim: Rather than on the magazine, you need word of
mouth, for all audiences. I’d say you put in a
segment on say, Oprah. If you have brand association
with people they trust every day, then it works.
The closer you can get it to them while making it
their choice, and also using the social community
aspect, like a friend or like Oprah, then I think
you can introduce women to games if it has the right
elements for them.

Russell: Well for SOE we’re trying to broaden the
demographics that we attract. Marketing is not my
expertise but we’re very much trying to open up the
gameplay styles and genres. If we can just create
a rich enough environment …

Speaking as a female who's known by name on sight in my local Gamestop, I think these folks are overemphasizing women's reluctance to go into such a store and underestimating the content of their games and marketing.

Those of us who started with MUDs and other text-based games, such as British Legends, Gemstone III or DragonRealms, know to
look past the scantily clad, overendowed females screaming "This is for horny teenaged boys!" from the game ads and boxes. Those women who missed out on those games and didn't wander into them through a significant other or friend have NO idea there's anything to appeal to them in a computer game.

As a frequent beta tester for SOE, I can't begin to count the number of women who have begged, in vain, the developers for a normally proportioned female avatar and clothing that reasonably covered it in SOE's games. Thus, I find it rather amusing to see a SOE rep say their company is "very much trying to open up the gameplay styles and genres."

It's absurd for game companies to have men guessing at what women want, while at the same time totally ignoring what women SAY they want. (Hello? Decent clothing! Normal body proportions for our characters! Hello?) Those few male developers, such as David Gaider of BioWare, developer of SWG: Knights of the Old Republic's Carth romance, who have taken the radical step of asking women and then listening to what we say(what a concept!) have reaped the rewards.

Painful

] What we need are corresponding mechanisms to prevent
] abuse. This is the proper question: "Should we allow law
] enforcement to use new technology without any judicial
] oversight, or should we demand that they be overseen and
] accountable?" And the Fourth Amendment already provides
] for this in its requirement of a warrant.

[ Yeah, accountability is the most critical thing here. The judges need to be in charge of this, and if a warrant turns out bad and violates an innocent mans privacy, then the judge gets the smackdown. There's a bigger problem with this, however, which is that judges are already overworked, and finding competent judges is not that easy. Anyone who's had to go to court for anything knows just how backed up and inefficient the whole thing is... that's gonna have to get fixed too, or the accountability Schneier argues for will be hollow, applied to persons we can't afford to lose... -k]

Newsday.com - Opinion

"Fuck'em suck'em robots"

[ ! ]

Roboho Main Directory

There's no vestige of beginning,
no prospect of an end
When we all disintegrate it will all happen again
If you came to conquer, you'll be king for a day
then you to will deteriorate and quickly fade away
-Bad Religion, No Control

Rather apt lyrics

[ I've been finding Bad Religion to be more and more applicable on a daily basis... -k]

No Control

] A privately developed spacecraft rocketed a solo pilot to
] the edge of space on Thursday, as part of ongoing
] preparations for its first full space flight.
]
] SpaceCraftOne, flown by 62-year-old Mike Melvill, reached
] altitude of 65,000 metres at about 1600 GMT. The altitude
] is a new record for a private vehicle. NASA awards
] astronaut status to anyone who reaches an altitude of 50
] miles (80,500 metres).

[ As much bad shit as happens in the world, isn't it an exciting time to be alive!

This is the team (as abaddon pointed out to me) that's funded primarily by Paul Allen, and led by famed aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. It's hard to argue that these guys will take the X-prize... they're *way* ahead of the competition. As cool as Carmack's H202 powered vehicle is, i don't see it getting to space anytime soon. -k]

Private rocket ship sets altitude record

] It took Adam Arkin and David Schaffer just $200,000 and a
] grad student to develop a potential treatment for AIDS.
] And that scares them.
]
] That's because the therapy itself is a virus. The
] Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory assistant
] professors created a virus altered to latch onto HIV and
] mute its ability to become AIDS. They've tested the
] theory in a computer model and in cells in a dish. The
] results have been promising, and if they continue in that
] vein, the researchers could begin animal testing by the
] end of this year.

Wired News: Designer Virus Stalks HIV

There are memes, and then there are Memes. Said another way: All memes are created equal, but some memes are more equal than others.
...
It is hoped that with gold stars and sticky bits, we can dramatically reduce the occurrence of missed excellence within the MemeStreams community.

On The Relative Importance and Urgency of Memes, and a Modest Proposal