] SAN FRANCISCO -- Tech job postings on two popular online
] employment sites have increased sharply, a sign that the
] long moribund job market may finally be turning around.
]
] Craigslist tech job postings in the San Francisco Bay
] Area have doubled from a year ago and are up 50 percent
] from six months ago, said CEO Jim Buckmaster. Activity
] has particularly picked up in the past four weeks, he
] said.
]
] A similar picture has emerged at Monster.com, one of the
] Web's biggest job sites. Overall listings are up 19
] percent in the past six months, said founder Jeff Taylor.
] The increases are centered in such tech job categories as
] software development (39 percent), call center jobs (36
] percent) and engineering (21 percent).

Wired News: Not So Quiet on Tech Job Front

I just got this link from Virgil Griffith.

This webpage will redirect you to a Google image search using a random search term based on the filename scheme used by many popular digital cameras. What results is the most random, random sampling of pictures.

The Google random picture generator

As the days pass, and the date of PhreakNIC grows closer, its bothering me more and more that I'm not going.

If there is anyone in San Francisco, or for that matter California, or even anywhere in the general area between San Francisco and Nashville, who is interested in splitting costs for the drive out and back, I will drive..

I would like to go, but there is a margin of about $300 that can break my bank this month. And thats about the cost of gas + oil changes + tire/car ware.. So if someone is willing to pay for the Gas, I will drive.. Thats a good deal, it _will_ wind up being roughly 1/3rd the cost of airfare..

There would be room for up to three people. Two other people at most would be ideal, as its a pretty long trip.

So, if any West Coast people are interested in making the trip to Nashville, do get in contact with me..

PhreakNIC starts Friday.. So we would have to leave Wendsday in order to make it.

I'll be posting on Craigslist also.

] // getsrvbyname.c -- A trivial implementation of a DNS
] // SRV [RFC2782] resolver.

Here's Bucy's code. Probably buggy. BSD license.

getsrvbyname()

Bucy suggests using SVR tags to implement the passing of clues, for lookup services like SiteFinder.

] Unfortunately, noone uses them. I claim that the main reason
] for this is the lack of support in (free (not GPL)) resolver
] libraries. I have a minimally working implementation that I
] will probably release under a BSDish license in the next few
] days.
]
] SRV records might, for example, make sitefinder much less bad;
] if the wildcard were
]
] *.com IN SRV host=sitefinder.verisign.com port=80 priority=1
] weight=1
]
] rather than
]
] *.com IN A ...
]
] I expect that the effects would be much less disruptive, i.e.
] browsers would be redirected but everything else would not.
]
] So first, we have to get resolvers out there and then we need
] to get software fixed. Who's with me?

This sounds like a good idea Bucy. (Although I would still argue that lookup services like this should be in the browser, and not a function of the DNS system.) This is a reasonable middle ground, and most importantly its an acceptable solution that it may be possible to force VeriSign into. I'm sure SiteFinder, as a product, will wind up thrust in front of many eyeballs before we see the end of it. That's also not the problem. The problem is the current implementation breaks Internet standards.

The DNS give authoritative answers to questions. Nothing about this wildcard is authoritative. Your solution is. Its telling me what the resource is in a context where I know what it is. At the protocol level, I know I'm not getting exactly what I asked for, but I can get something that will help me. And that is what SiteFinder is. Under your scheme, its no longer theft and false representation. Here, I can choose to use the service offered me. Not forced. And that _is_ the way business should work after all.

VeriSign does have a quasi-valid point in that innovation in this space does not happen by itself. It would have been impossible to make what you suggest happen without the current pressure created by VeriSign. However, If MS and Apple can be made to go along with this, in terms of support in their resolver libraries that gets pushed out in a planed update, its won. And I can see that being possible.

If the Internet community can present a better option, that still allows VeriSign to deploy their SiteFinder product, only in a way acceptable to us, we win. I really hate that right now I have to opt-out at the level of by local recursive DNS server. It should be able to happen at the client.

Here, there exists the ability for the user to opt-opt and the various browser to extend the feature set, override it. Its also easy to extend it to service different services.

And the key thing, its not breaking the authoritative nature of DNS system. I like.

] *.com IN SRV host=sitefinder.verisign.com port=80 priority=1
] weight=1

However, you would need a protocol="tcp" flag along with your port="80" in your example. :) There are some details that need to be hashed out, but I like the general idea.

RE: A DNS RR for specifying the location of services (DNS SRV) (RFC2782)

The LA Critics Association has canceled their awards this year.

From Henry Sheehan via Roger L. Simon via Glenn Reynolds:
] The cause was the Motion Picture Association of
] America's decision to ban screeners (video and DVD
] editions of the year's film releases) from
] distribution to voters in the Motion Picture Academy and
] the various critics organizations which award annual
] prizes.

] The L.A. critics don’t like being manipulated into a corner
] by this policy. Of course it would be best to see every
] movie on the big screen. But in the years since screeners
] have become common, the number of films released per
] year has increased by 33%. You just can’t see everything.
] Moreover, as the year draws to an end, critics like to go
] over films from earlier in the year for second or even third
] viewings, especially when considering categories such as
] best score, production design, and certainly the two
] supporting actor slots.

And it appears they are drawing some lines in the sand also..

] The cancellation is contingent on the MPAA’s rescinding the
] screener policy. If it goes, the cancellation goes. But the
] crucial word is “rescind.” Not alter or modify. Rescind.

And why are they doing this you ask? Simple. Its been well proven that the source of most pirated movie copies floating around the net are these screeners.

This is going to be interesting to watch develop.

Newsreel | LA Crix Nix Pix Prix

On Monday, 20 October, visit this site to download the Arab Human Development Report for 2003. For now, you can review the 2002 Report.

This report is a product of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building Knowledge Society

] Laying a broad basis for possible future prescriptions, the
] President's Council on Bioethics yesterday issued an
] analysis of how biotechnology could lead toward
] unintended and destructive ends.

Comments on the matter from Decius:

I must express some suspicion of this given that we already understand what the administration's perspective of this is. Is this a search for answers, or a hammer looking for a nail?

Some of the NYT's quotes reveal a mixed bag:

For example, this makes sense to me:
"By medicalizing key elements of our life through biotechnical interventions," the report says, "we may weaken our sense of responsibility and agency."

We already do this in many different ways.

On the other hand, I cannot imagine a more foolish luddism then this statement:

It concludes that "the human body and mind, highly complex and delicately balanced as a result of eons of gradual and exacting evolution, are almost certainly at risk from any ill-considered attempt at `improvement.' "

While the wording here is carefully chosen, the message is clear. Obviously there are risks. Everything has risks. It is important to understand risks and avoid them. But by waxing about the perfection of the human being and placing the word improvement in quotes, the author is not really referring to risk management. He stops short of arguing that all activity in this space would be counterproductive only because he can't prove that. He is saying that biotechnology is bad.

What this perspective ignores is that every single technological development in the history of man, from the first wooden spear to the space shuttle, has been an attempt to escape the boundaries of what nature has given us. That is, in fact, fundamentally what makes us human and what differs us from most other animals. We invent technologies which help us adapt to environmental pressures that other species cannot adapt to because they adapt at random and without will.

To claim that we have no reason to continue to expand the boundaries of our capabilities is the same sort of narcissistic bullshit that lead Fukuyama, who made large contributions to this paper, to conclude that we are at the end of political history. This perspective is absolutely ignorant of human nature.

Bush's Advisers on Biotechnology Express Concern on Its Use

... Tons of foreign technology is imported, but it's never really internalized ...

Tom Friedman on Arab society in the Sunday New York Times.

Courageous Arab Thinkers

] On October 16, 2003, VeriSign announced the sale of its
] Network Solutions (NSI) business unit three years after
] its purchase from SAIC. This is a report on the
] historical snapshot of Network Solutions and a collection
] of commentaries made in response to this event.

Some good comments here.

Reaction to VeriSign-NSI Break Up