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| "Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind... War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." -- John F. Kennedy |
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A Timely Subject -- and a Sore One (washingtonpost.com) [Islamic studies at UNC] |
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| Topic: Politics and Law |
1:05 pm EDT, Aug 12, 2002 |
Unbelievable. This country is going to hell in a handbasket.
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this year, the university in Chapel Hill is asking all 3,500 incoming freshmen to read a book about Islam and finds itself besieged in federal court and across the airwaves by Christian evangelists and other conservatives. ... But a national TV talk show host, Fox News Network's Bill O'Reilly, compared the assignment to teaching "Mein Kampf" in 1941 and questioned the purpose of making freshmen study "our enemy's religion." ... To the university's critics, it's about maintaining America's moral backbone in the war on terrorism. ... But some evangelical Christian leaders -- including the Rev. Franklin Graham, who gave the invocation at Bush's inauguration -- have denounced Islam since Sept. 11 as an "evil" religion. Despite the furor those remarks have caused, Graham repeated in radio and television appearances this week that the Koran preaches violence and that terrorism is supported by "mainstream" Muslims around the world.
Welcome to Amerikkka! A Timely Subject -- and a Sore One (washingtonpost.com) [Islamic studies at UNC] |
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| Topic: Intellectual Property |
7:13 pm EDT, Aug 9, 2002 |
EUCD (European DMCA) lecture by Alan Cox (principle Linux developer) and Martin Keegan in April at the University of London. Sponsored by the Campaign for Digital Rights. Slides, Ogg Vorbis audio tracks, and more. See www.vorbis.com for Ogg Vorbis players. Latest WinAmp or RealAudio player should do. EUCD Lecture 29/04/02 |
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Viridian Note 00325: Open Source Speech |
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| Topic: Open Source Development |
4:52 pm EDT, Aug 6, 2002 |
Excellent Bruce Sterling speech at OSCON on OpenSource software. Some choice snippets:
I had a long argument about this with Cory Doctorow. He and I were really going at this hammer-and-tongs, over the growing spam and virus crisis. And I thought that there needed to be some kind of political and legal solution. Like building a galvanized steel cage in Cuba and throwing all the spammers and virus writers in there as unlawful combatants who are clear and present deadly enemies of humanity.
... As opposed to the sparkling lucidities of the free software developers! Free software, basically congealed by people who have some vague idea what they are doing, and are loathe to spend any time writing down specs, when they could be writing new features. ... The computer business wants to be really hot and sexy. It's like eavesdropping on a rich kid's affair with a supermodel. He's the user, he's the customer. He's eager, he's gullible. But she'd better be taut, hot, and totally glittering, or he'll pitch her right off the edge of the loading dock. ... In times of adversity, you learn who your friends are. You guys need a lot of friends. You need friends in all walks of life. Pretty soon, you are going to graduate from the status of techie geeks to official dissidents. This is your fate. People are wasting time on dissident relics like Noam Chomsky. Professor Chomsky is a pretty good dissident: he's persistent, he means what he says, and he's certainly very courageous, but this is the 21st century, and Stallman is a bigger deal. Lawrence Lessig is a bigger deal. Y'know, Lawrence, he likes to talk as if all is lost. He thinks we ought to rise up against Disney like the Serbians attacking Milosevic. He expects the population to take to the streets. Fuck the streets. Take to the routers. Take to the warchalk.
Viridian Note 00325: Open Source Speech |
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Will Consumers Pay for News Webcasts? |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
5:20 pm EDT, Aug 3, 2002 |
Who will pay for online news? The question has long boggled the news media, which has largely failed to make money on their Web sites using advertising, even though millions use the free news they provide. But publishers and broadcasters are redoubling their efforts to sell news for money, and the offerings have generated -- if not yet profits -- at least some buzz. ABC exec: "I think many users, certainly not all of them, are prepared to pay for high-quality service and high-quality content." The key to success is gearing news packages to the interests of individual subscribers, beyond the simple personalization settings available on some Web sites. [ Originally from Jeremy. Another segment that is being missed here is the research segment. I would actually pay a subscription to various online newspapers if: A) Articles were never modified after being originally submitted or, if modified, you could find the original as well as subsequent modified articles. B) All print articles were available online. C) A sophisticated search engine were in place. A lot more can be said here, but specifically mechanisms for searching reference-able material (author, date begin/end, etc.). D) Ability to link to the articles are references. I don't care if it requires a registration at the specific news site as long as they have an entry-level "free" registration so that subscription costs would not hinder the ability of people to read my reference. Anyone else? --Rek ] Will Consumers Pay for News Webcasts? |
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Double-dip alert - Washington statisticians have once again redefined the economic landscape. |
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| Topic: Economics |
3:10 pm EDT, Aug 2, 2002 |
Courtesy of the so-called benchmark revision of the national income and product accounts, the recent performance of the U.S. economy has been cast in a very different light. The direction of this annual revision was hardly a shocker. The incoming monthly flow data had tipped us off to expect a weaker picture than the previous data had painted. But there is more to this revision than statistical noise. In my opinion, the new data now place the U.S. economy right on the brink of another recessionary relapse -- the dreaded double dip. Double dips happen because demand relapses invariably occur at just the time when businesses are lifting production in order to rebuild inventories. With the current production upswing well advanced -- industrial production has risen for six consecutive months -- a demand relapse would come at a most inopportune time. Yet with the U.S. economy now back to its stall speed, that's precisely the risk. Courtesy of the government's newly revised depiction of the U.S. economy, the odds of a double dip have risen, in my view. I would now place a 60 percent to 65 percent chance on such a possibility in the second half of this year. Double-dip alert - Washington statisticians have once again redefined the economic landscape. |
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KT selects Lucent for Optical Upgrade |
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| Topic: Telecom Industry |
2:40 pm EDT, Aug 2, 2002 |
Lucent Technologies will supply KT (formerly Korea Telecom) with an advanced optical system that will allow KT to quadruple capacity of its existing networks. This marks the first major introduction of 10-gigabit technology to South Korea's largest communications service provider's long-distance transmission networks. Under the terms of the contract, Lucent will deliver 25 WaveStar TDM 10G (STM-64) systems by the end of September to upgrade KT's current 2.5 gigabit-based city-to-city networks in Gyunggi, Chungcheong, Jeonra and Gangwon province to 10G capacity-based networks. The commercial service is scheduled to start this November. KT selects Lucent for Optical Upgrade |
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| Topic: Arts |
2:37 pm EDT, Aug 2, 2002 |
The remarkable true story of two inner city Chicago youths, LeAlan Jones (Roderick Pannell) and Lloyd Newman (Brandon Hammond) who, with the help of National Public Radio producer David Isay (Josh Charles), create audio documentaries about their impoverished community. The teens' broadcasts stir up controversy, but when they are able to get to the truth about the tragic death of a 5-year-old boy, they earn a Peabody Award, becoming the youngest journalists to ever receive that honor. Our America | Showtime |
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Factiva CEO: News will cost in two years |
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| Topic: Business |
3:25 pm EDT, Aug 1, 2002 |
Consumers will be coughing up for all online media content by 2004, according to Factiva CEO Clare Hart, who sees a two-year turnaround for ISPs to get with the paid-for-content program. In two years we will see a turnaround in the consumer market. Its going to take some time for publishers to build the infrastructure to bill consumers. In the meantime, consumers are going to learn that they have to pay, business users on the other hand have know this for a long time. [ Originally from w1ld. Bastiges.... --Rek ] Factiva CEO: News will cost in two years |
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