Freely available.

Excel .NetMap - Social Network Add-in for Excel 2007

The latest figures on housing offer little hope an end is near.

Housing Bust Continues

Abstract: The studies of the dynamics of topical dataflow of new information in the framework of a logistic model were suggested. The condition of topic balance, when the number of publications on all topics is proportional to the information space and time, was presented. General time dependence of the publication intensity in the Internet, devoted to particular topics, was observed; unlike an exponent model, it has a saturation area. Some limitations of a logistic model were identified opening the way for further research.

Dynamics of thematic information flows

The soldiers, their superiors and the culture of denial that led to the appalling treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

'Standard Operating Procedure' by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris

Mo Yan offers insights into communist ideology and predatory capitalism that we ignore at our peril. This "lumbering animal of a story," as he calls it, combines the appeal of a family saga set against tumultuous events with the technical bravura of innovative fiction. Catch a ride on this wheel of transmigration.

Animal Farm

Is Osama bin Laden a rebel against the Saudi Arabian ruling class or a model member of it? That question lurks behind “The Bin Ladens,” by the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker writer Steve Coll. The world’s most famous terrorist owes his fortune and his standing to a family business that Coll calls “the kingdom’s Halliburton.” Like Halliburton, the Saudi Binladin Group specializes in gigantic infrastructure projects. Government connections are the key to the family’s wealth. So you would assume they would react with unmixed horror to a radical son, like the duchess in the Noël Coward song:

You could have pierced her with swords
When she discovered
Her youngest liked Lenin
And sold the Daily Worker near the House of Lords.

But Saudi Arabia, Coll shows, is a place where the interests of rulers and revolutionaries are less easy to distinguish.

The 54 of Us

Paul Graham:

Great cities attract ambitious people. You can sense it when you walk around one. In a hundred subtle ways, the city sends you a message: you could do more; you should try harder.

The surprising thing is how different these messages can be. New York tells you, above all: you should make more money. There are other messages too, of course. You should be hipper. You should be better looking. But the clearest message is that you should be richer.

Cities and Ambition

Lawrence Wright:

An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism.

The Rebellion Within

In this article I'd like to present personal perspective of the evolution of the Internet over the last decade, highlighting my impressions of what has worked, what has not and what has changed over this period.

10 Years Later

OpenID was designed as a lightweight solution for “trivial” use cases in identity management: its primary goal is to enable Internet surfers to replace self-generated usernames and passwords by a single login credential, without needing more than their browser. Concretely, OpenID aims to enable individuals to post blog comments and log into social networking sites without having to remember multiple passwords. (Of course, local password store utilities already do that; more on this later.)

Beyond this, OpenID is pretty much useless. The reasons for this are many: OpenID is highly vulnerable to phishing and other attacks, creates insurmountable privacy problems, is not a trust system, suffers from usability problems, and makes it unappealing to become an OpenID “consumer.” Many smart people have already elaborated on these problems in various forums. In the rest of this post I will be quoting from and pointing to their critiques.

The problem(s) with OpenID