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Tools to protect your privacy on the Internet go just so far, and the businesses that dominate it have no incentive to let them go any farther

Tinfoil Underwear

Now, more than ever, the lines of technology, freedom, and privacy are colliding. Governments continue their surveillance of citizens in the name of security, huge databases of information on every aspect of individuals’ lives are created, and debates are underway about controlling content. Yet, while technology is at the epicenter of these profound developments, technology also has the potential to advance the civil society.

With the US Capitol as a backdrop, CFP2006 in Washington,DC will explore our collective future as technology collides with LIFE, LIBERTY, & DIGITAL RIGHTS. CFP2006 will explore issues that impact us all, wherever we are, around the world.

CFP 2006 Welcome

From Publishers Weekly

The flip side of America's worship of novelty is its addiction to waste, a linkage illuminated in this fascinating historical study. Historian Slade surveys the development of disposability as a consumer convenience, design feature, economic stimulus and social problem, from General Motors' 1923 introduction of annual model changes that prodded consumers to trade in perfectly good cars for more stylish updates, to the modern cell-phone industry, where fashion-driven "psychological obsolescence" compounds warp-speed technological obsolescence to dramatically reduce product life-cycles. He also explores the debate over "planned obsolescence"-decried by social critics as an unethical affront to values of thrift and craftsmanship, but defended as a Darwinian spur to innovation by business intellectuals who further argued that "wearing things out does not produce prosperity, but buying things does." Slade's even-handed analysis acknowledges both manufacturers' manipulative marketing ploys and consumers' ingrained love of the new as motors of obsolescence, which he considers an inescapable feature of a society so focused on progress and change. His episodic treatment sometimes meanders into too-obscure byways, and his alarm at the prospect of thrown-away electronic gadgets overflowing landfills and poisoning the water supply seems overblown. But Slade's lively, insightful look at a pervasive aspect of America's economy and culture make this book a keeper.

Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America

In the last 5 years, the Department of Defense (DOD) has doubled its planned investments in new weapon systems from about $700 billion in 2001 to nearly $1.4 trillion in 2006. While the weapons that DOD develops have no rival in superiority, weapon systems acquisition remains a long-standing high risk area. GAO’s reviews over the past 30 years have found consistent problems with weapon acquisitions such as cost increases, schedule delays, and performance shortfalls.

This report provides congressional and DOD decision makers with an independent, knowledge-based assessment of selected defense programs that identifies potential risks and needed actions when a program's projected attainment of knowledge diverges from the best practices.

GAO assessed 52 systems that represent an investment of over $850 billion, ranging from the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser to the Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical. DOD often exceeds development cost estimates by approximately 30 to 40 percent and experiences cuts in planned quantities, missed deadlines, and performance shortfalls. Such difficulties, absent definitive and effective reform outcomes, are likely to cause great turmoil in a budget environment in which there are growing fiscal imbalances as well as increasing conflict over increasingly limited resources. While these problems are in themselves complex, they are heightened by the fact that this current level of investment is by no means final and unchangeable. A large number of the technologies under development in these systems are sufficiently new and immature that it is uncertain how long it will take or how much it will cost to make them operational.

Most of the 52 programs GAO reviewed have proceeded with lower levels of knowledge than suggested by best practices. Programs that start with mature technologies do better. As shown in the figure below, programs that began with immature technologies have experienced average research and development cost growth of 34.9 percent; programs that began with mature technologies have only experienced cost growth of 4.8 percent.

There are a lot of programs in the DoD portfolio. This report provides a good snapshot of the largest and most important ones. Here's a typical nugget:

The Air Force has not demonstrated the F-22A can achieve its reliability goal of 3 hours mean time between maintenance. It does not expect to achieve this goal until the end of 2009 when most of the aircraft will have already been bought.

Is it just me, or does that seem like a rather modest reliability goal? What about when the mission calls for refueling by tanker? And yet, this is said to represent as much as a 100% improvement over other fighters in the inventory.

An earlier GAO report explains further:

Mean time between maintenance is a measure of aircraft reliability defined as the total number of aircraft flight hours divided by the total number of aircraft maintenance actions in the same period. The F-22's goal is 3 flight hours between maintenance actions by the time the F-22 reaches system maturity (100,000 flight hours, in about 2008).

The Air Force estimates that by the time the F-22 reaches system maturity, it will only require maintenance every 3.1 flight hours. The estimate was calculated using a reliability computer model that uses factors such as the design of the aircraft's systems and scheduled maintenance activities. Maintenance data will be collected from the 500th through the 5,000th hour of flight testing throughout the development and operational flight-testing phases to update the maintenance estimate.

GAO Assessments of Selected Major Weapon Systems

For some, the new era of lightweight, lightning-fast software design is akin to a guerrilla movement rattling the walls of stodgy corporate development organizations.

"They stole our revolution and now we're stealing it back and selling it to Yahoo," said Bruce Sterling.

The latest Markoff story.

Software Out There

1. Because they don't want to generate content, they want better life
2. Because it solves a problem they don't have
3. Because it won't help them with their problem
4. Because oprah didn't mention it
5. Because everyone they know isn't using it
6. Because it doesn't let them spy on people they care about
7. Because they just don't care about what they see
8. Because nobody at work said they should use it
9. Because it's not fun enough
10. Because it doesn't make them smile
11. Because it doesn't make or save them a ton of money
12. Because it doesn't save them a ton of time
13. Because they can't think of what they're passionate about
14. Because it doesn't save lives or save the world
15. Because it's not as exciting as vegas
16. Because it sounds like a citibank ad and they hate citibank ads
17. Because nobody's waiting in line for it
18. Because they've got jobs & kids & they're busy
19. Because they've got an appointment with american idol
20. Because they're scared of the computer
21. Because they've got enough friends
22. Because they don't write well
23. Because more people are using craigslist
24. Because you don't tell them what you want them to do
25. Because nobody will think they're a loser if they don't use it
26. Because it's a thing for weirdos or losers
27. Because it's clearly something for "computer people"
28. Because someone will steal their identity or snatch their kids
29. Because they don't understand your college words
30. Because they're better at something else that you suck at
31. Because they're not good at the computer
32. Because they were born before 1985
33. Because they're shy
34. Because it doesn't work like yahoo or amazon or ebay
35. Because it's more than 1 screen to learn, unlike google
36. Because they're depressed
37. Because they don't want to sit in front of the computer
38. Because they tried to use it, but something got messed up
39. Because they've never heard of it
40. Because there's something better to do
41. Because us-weekly is more interesting
42. Because it says "tags" or "rss" and they feel stupid
43. Because a friend or family member needs them
44. Because they don't want to look dumb
45. Because they've never heard of flickr or delicious either
46. Because there aren't enough people using it yet to make it useful
47. Because there's no nudity or celebrities
48. Because it doesn't tell them why to use it
49. Because it doesn't get them sex and/or love
50. Because they just don't want to read what you want them to read

Don't get me wrong, there's enormous opportunity to make new things that help people, and I bet that some people reading this will do just that.

50 Reasons Why People Aren't Using MemeStreams

This guy is doing some interesting data analysis and visualizations with weblog traffic.

Anjo Anjewierden

CopyPaste is the original award winning multiple clipboard utility which now includes yType the typing accelerator which allows you to type faster and more accurately.

CopyPaste yType 2.7.2 – Mac OS X – VersionTracker