... The Bush team destroyed the Iraqi regime in three weeks and has not persuaded Israel to give up one settlement in three years. To think America can practice that sort of hypocrisy and win the war of ideas in the Arab-Muslim world is a truly dangerous fantasy.

War of Ideas, Part 4

In a forceful preview of the Bush administration's expansionist military policies in this election year, Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday painted a grim picture of what he said was the growing threat of a catastrophic terrorist attack in the United States and warned that the battle, like the Cold War, could last generations.

If a newspaper could have a soundtrack, you might expect to hear a bear growling on a windy, stormy night, with a wolf or two howling from the hills in the distance. Every few minutes, the rumble of an incoming mortar attack. And in between, the uncomortable silence of the things you can't hear.

Cheney's grim vision: decades of war

] Doug Z's Art is a mixture of thought, creativity, spray
] cans and imaginations. His work is unusual, ethereal and
] even mind warping.

This is great! I've been wanting Doug to have some kinda online presence for YEARS.

I have know Doug since I was 17. He has been producing art constantly since then. He deserves the title "artist" more then anyone else I know, because he is _always_ producing.

Doug Z Art Gallery

Here it is, as promised, the video of the last Flipside gig.

I have the feeling that the site is slammed. I was unable to download it for awhile.

(Could someone please recommend a reliable public tracker? I can generate a torrent..)

Sunshine Flipside Last Show

] global networks

] a traveling retrospective of 25 works by mark lombardi
] organized by independent curators international, new york
] curated by robert hobbs

] yerba buena center for the arts. san francisco,
] california - 17 january - 4 april, 2004

This opens up this Saturday.. I will most certainly check this out while it is in town.

mark lombardi @ pierogi 2000

] his paper documents the use of pictorial images in social
] network analysis. It shows that such images are critical
] both in helping investigators to understand network data
] and to communicate that understanding to others.
]
] The paper reviews the long history of image use in the
] field. It begins with illustrations of the earliest
] hand-drawn images in which points were placed by using ad
] hoc rules. It examines the development of systematic
] procedures for locating points. It goes on to discuss how
] computers have been used to actually produce drawings of
] networks, both for printing and for display on computer
] screens. Finally, it illustrates some of the newest
] procedures for producing web-based pictures that allow
] viewers to interact with the network data and to explore
] their structural properties.

Found via Many-to-Many, posted by Clay Shirky.

Carnegie Mellon: Journal of Social Structure: Visualizing Social Networks

] Police believe one or two young men, possibly teenagers,
] are responsible for issuing obscenities and insults to
] customers at a Troy Burger King drive-through window.
]
] "You don't need a couple of Whoppers. You are too fat.
] Pull ahead," Officer Gerry Scherlink said is an example
] of what the hackers are telling customers at the
] drive-through speaker.

Those systems use different frequencies for transmitting and receiving in order to be full duplex. That means you can speak to either the person inside taking orders or the people in the car, without the other knowing. Oh my, the evil fun that can be had. (/me knows nothing about any of this, and never did anything evil when he was a kid.)

You want #@$* with that? Hackers serve unhappy meals

] The main recipients have been in the ball bearing, steel
] and other metal firms, as well as firms producing food,
] particularly pasta, and household items. The EU said
] information published so far indicates that the Bush
] administration is planning to distribute another $240
] million.

Hrm.. The way we have been addressing the steel trade deficit has been causing way too much tension. We need to find a way to keep these industries pumping, but not at the expense of trade. We should know this.

The other day, watching the Modern Marvels episode about the Bay Bridge, I remember hearing something about how the steel order for the project wound up being something like 10% of the United State's steel production volume during the period.

Anywhere we need a big bridge?

CNN.com - EU seeks sanctions against U.S. - Jan. 15, 2004

] "There were too many headaches in dealing with India," he
] says, recalling his experience overseeing such work. "We
] often got spaghetti code that was functional, but
] couldn't grow. We had no idea if delivery dates would be
] hit because they would freely give promises, but not
] results. The time difference was very difficult. The
] explanation, 'They program while you sleep' doesn't hold
] water. Too often, a problem would arise and they would
] respond the next day with, 'Well, we weren't sure what
] you wanted to do' -- and a whole day was lost, time and
] again. Before long we were four months behind schedule.
] It was also very difficult to remotely manage a project
] unless you had a very strong infrastructure over there of
] U.S.-style managers. Finally, the rising costs over there
] make it tougher to justify."

And boy-oh-boy, I cannot emphasize enough what a headache coordinating work across timezones can be. Everything about it induces massive amounts of stress. That is a very no-bullshit problem. You don't want to manage across timezones any more then necessary. Any type of micromanagement isn't even remotely possible. When Decius and I were working around Asia-Pac, this was the source of so much stress (even though it wasn't anything like an outsourcing situation, aside from the logistical effects). Right around the time of day when you are starting to look at the door, your overseas offices are coming online. Those precious hours of overlap, are where you would normally have an evening social life. Instead, you get home around 11pm and survive thanks only to pizza delivery.

I imagine outsourcing only really winds up being "cheap" if you can manage your groups extremely effectively. Onsite management can't be weak. Rather, management must be on site, even if its taking its direction from overseas.

] Cost. No contest here. The cost for a managed developer
] in India was $3,200 per month, vs. $1,000 a month in
] Colombia. (A managed developer is overseen by an onsite
] manager monitoring progress and quality, so the cost
] includes part of the manager's salary.) The difference in
] costs is so vast that it actually allows K3 group to make
] money in an area not known for profits, says Ryan. "Typically,
] with enterprise-application software, consulting for customer
] specific needs just breaks even. The benefit with having a
] low-cost development outsourcing partner is that we can
] make money with consulting."

Forget India.. Forget China.. Forget Malaysia.. South America, baby.

I worked with an engineer from Columbia a few years back.. She rocked.

A New Tide in Offshore Outsourcing

But those who think this is a done deal don't know Iraq.

War of Ideas, Part 3