Adaptation is Brilliant.
Everyone must see Adaptation, Spike Jonze's latest. It's probably the best film I've seen in seven years. Just see it, ok? It's unbelievable. I've got a stupid smile on my face and a million thoughts in my mind that might just stay there for the next several days -- even through Christmas -- because of it. Jason Kottke set up a blog about it.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers -- progress is made by lazy people looking for easier ways to do things." - Robert A. Heilein
Friday, December 20, 2002 07:27 p.m.
Browser Wars
A few weeks back I mentioned that Eolas Technologies filed a lawsuit against Microsoft over patent infringement. Eolas, "controls a patent that covers embedding plug-ins, applets, scriptlets, or ActiveX Controls into Web pages -- the use of any algorithm that implements dynamic, bi-directional communications between an app embedded in a Web page and external applications." So they've got they keys! PC World just reported that a court date has been set starting July 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. This should be interesting.
Thursday, December 19, 2002 06:39 p.m.
Church or Jail? A man in Ohio opted out of court-mandated Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and must go to jail instead. He's agnostic and didn't want to put up with any thinly-veiled Judeo-Christian jive. ACLU is all over this one saying, "To compel someone to choose between jail and saying he believes in a higher power is a violation of the Establishment Clause [of the First Amendment]."
Something truly atrocious is CNN's report that a fourteen year old lesbian was banned from her school's gym locker room, because the other female students would feel "uncomfortable" undressing in front of her. Remember Middle School? Multiple all your angst and frustration by twenty and you've probably got an idea of what she's going through right now
Thursday, December 19, 2002 05:15 p.m.
Is is 'Is'
The self-important, self-serving, panty-inspecting, sorry bastard that is the former president has a schlocky op-ed in the IHT, instructing America to "lead, not dominate."
From the dawn of human society up to the present time, we have been bedeviled by a persistent curse: the compulsion people feel to define the meaning of their lives in positive terms with reference to those who are like them racially, tribally, culturally, religiously, politically, and by negative reference to those who are different. People then feel compelled to oppress those who are different when they are small and powerless enough not to prevent it.
Shut up! I have to give Bill a little credit though, for a limelight whore he sure stepped out when his time had come. He's also sleeping with Demi Moore now. God, they deserve each other. I can't even look at his picture, he disgusted me so much.
Thursday, December 19, 2002 03:10 p.m. You Mean Considerate, Intelligent, and Open-Minded?
When heartless, emotionally bankrupt reich wing objectivist thugs at Cato seem a little more concerned for the welfare of the planet (albeit for their calculated financial reasons) than the Shrub and his minions, then we're all in trouble. Yes, you too America.
Dot Com Nostalgia
WSJ has a timeline with links to popular articles this past year. Nearly every month has a feature on victims of the "bubble bust." look at the NASDAQ go...
Falls Church Dispatches Just as I got home, around 8 o'clock I heard a fire truck siren. It got progressively louder until it sounded like the truck was outside my house. I glanced out the window. Jeez, this is crazy. There was a firetruck festooned with christmas lights and guys dressed like Santa and his elves sitting on top of it waving to me.
That is just one in a serious of "have-I-stepped-into-a David-Lynch-movie?" moments that are occuring freuqently this month. On Saturday I went to a party at a day care center. The couple having the party rents out the first floor of their house to a day care. The place was decorated in colorful stuff and toys. There were signs in the kitchen that said "Jordan is allergic to peanuts and soy." Little toddler-sized chairs were everywhere. I didn't know anyone at the party besides the company I was with, so I proceeded to get high and watch hermit crabs walk around in a cage.
That reminds me of one I time I was walking into the Kingpin and three midgets were walking out. They were no ordniary midgets. These midgets were tough guys wearing Starter jackets and shit. I found out later they're in a band called The Little Kingz. They were supposed to play at the Black Cat next month but the show got cancelled. Too bad.
No correlation to the above, but check out Buddyhead's new look. The designer is after my own heart. Green text on green background? Swooooon...
Tuesday, December 17, 2002 11:10 a.m.
More Trade, Fewer Troops
Walter Williams' new column offers a completely rational solution to the Middle East conflict.
Doron concludes that the most important ingredient for conflict reduction is economic development. First, Israel should open its markets to Palestinian products. Israeli farmers unable to compete with Palestinian labor-intensive goods should be encouraged and helped to produce goods for which they have an advantage. Similar arrangements could be worked out in the construction materials, apparel and footwear industries, and other sectors where Arab competition displaced Israeli workers. The Israeli government must cut its high taxes and red tape that hinder Israeli and Arab entrepreneurs alike and discourage joint ventures. Israel must keep its hands off the informal markets that have sprung up on the edges of Palestinian areas, which provide livelihoods and are very popular with Israeli shoppers.
Tuesday, December 17, 2002 01:33 a.m.
Another Reason Why DMCA Sucks Mercury News says IP legislation has the unintended consequence of
hurting cyber-security research
As the DMCA was working its way through Congress, technologists pointed out that the bill as drafted could outlaw the research and testing necessary to develop new cyber-security products. In response, Congress included in the DMCA two narrow exceptions for encryption research and security testing.
In the four years since the DMCA's enactment, it has become increasingly clear that these exceptions are simply too narrow. Computer science professors have found themselves entangled in litigation because of their academic activities, and universities and software companies have had to include attorneys in the research and development process to ensure compliance with the DMCA's arcane terms.
In this way, the DMCA has hindered the development of technologies that can protect computer networks from cyber-attacks. Indeed, Richard Clarke, the head of the White House office of cyberspace security, recently called for the amendment of the DMCA because of its ``chilling effect on vulnerability research.''
Monday, December 16, 2002 04:53 p.m.
The FCC's Grandfather Clock The LA Times today has something on commissioner Michael J. Copps, the lone democrat on the team. He;s basically the one butting heads with Powell, working to perserve the statism everyone else at the FCC seems eager to relieve.
Sunday, December 15, 2002 09:28 p.m.
Competition and Entreprenuership
thirdman497: totally, i'd like an open place with people stopping by all the time and chilling, but there'd be a "no tools allowed" sign on the door
thirdman497: do you think "Don't Be A Tool" is a good t-shirt idea?
joanneuary: and i'd totally go there!
joanneuary: yeah, i'd wear it
joanneuary: you should get an MBA bill
joanneuary: you've got business accumen
thirdman497: go into the t-shirt biz?
joanneuary: yeah. there's a lot of money in it, i think
thirdman497: i was also thinking you could make those "Goddess" type t-shirts for the philosophy intellectual crowd...
thirdman497: "Logical Positivist"
thirdman497: "Dialectical Materialist"
Sunday, December 15, 2002 08:49 p.m.
Reality TV Unethical? You think?
The new Techsploitation by Annalee Newitz is interesting. She starts with a description of Stanley Milgram's social experiments that were so controvertial in 60's that strict guidelines were established by psychiatric associations.
These days, researchers who want to experiment on a human subject must first petition a review committee and explain exactly what they'll be doing. Then they must gain explicit consent from all human subjects involved in the experiment. No deception is allowed. Before they experiment on your mind, researchers must tell you exactly what they're studying and what they're going to do to you.
She goes on to humorously conclude that reality tv shows, "would [not] pass muster with a committee on the use of human experimental subjects." Go read the article. It's a good one
Sunday, December 15, 2002 03:12 p.m.
Oxymoron of the Day: "Smart Doll" Better Humans -- a cool site worth poking around on (although use a pop-up killing browser, it's got far too many) -- reports "Cindy Smart" is on pink crayon christmas lists this winter:
Looking like the baby of some Baywatch star, Cindy Smart has blue eyes and long blonde hair, and comes with a pink shirt and blue overalls.
All of that hides her most striking features, however: A digital camera, voice recognition software and a 16-bit microprocessor. And though Baywatch gets criticized for lacking intelligence, Cindy Smart can read, tell time, identify pictures, identify colors, identify shapes, speak, listen and, amazingly, remember what she learns.
"We are not trying to give a robot emotions. We are trying to make robots that are sensitive to our emotions," says Smith, associate professor of psychology and human development.
Their vision, which is to create a kind of robot Friday, a personal assistant who can accurately sense the moods of its human bosses and respond appropriately, is described in the article, "Online Stress Detection using Psychophysiological Signals for Implicit Human-Robot Cooperation." The article, which appears in the Dec. issue of the journal Robotica, also reports the initial steps that they have taken to make their vision a reality.
Saturday, December 14, 2002 06:59 p.m.
The One That I Want Run, don't walk (really) to get a hold of Margaret Cho's "The Notorious C. H. O." I watched this cooking dinner and nearly burned myself several times from laughing/shaking so violently. Every five minutes is something more hilarious. Here's a profile from Salon
Saturday, December 14, 2002 03:49 p.m.
Survey Says Women Are Stupid Some Finnish researchers discovered an increase in deaths when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday. The increase applies only to women. Researches have conculded that because women tend to be more superstitious then men, when Friday the 13th occurs they act more anxious. This anxiety has lead to a 63 % greater risk of traffic death than on a Friday that is not deemed to be "unlucky."
BTW, If you believe in horoscopes or superstitions, you are fucking retarded. There, I said it.
Saturday, December 14, 2002 05:18 a.m.
Somethings to Remember
"Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve." - Karl Popper
"Never play cards with a man named Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own" - Nelson Algren
Friday, December 13, 2002 12:30 p.m.
The Little Things That Matter to Us
Daniel Sarewitz, a director at The Center for Science, Policy, and Outcome tells Wired he thinks the first big consumer use of nanotech will be, "a pheromone detector so you can tell which of your coworkers or classmates is hot to trot. Second-generation detectors will store information from a number of individuals and monitor changes over time, to identify who's getting interested and who's getting turned off."
Friday, December 13, 2002 11:41 a.m.
A Block of Not-So Verbally Acrobatic Writers
Radley has a fun thread up on appropriate ways to define a group of a certain demographic, ie "A brood of McSweeneys contributors and/or independently-owned coffeshop employees."
Thursday, December 12, 2002 10:54 a.m.
If You Build It, They Might Come The Post today has something on the Economics of Kid-Friendly Domains. As you may remember our technology-savy Congress created the "kids.us" domain to protect youngsters from pornography and other inappropriate sites. The feasibility aspect of that is not discussed, rather the article questions who's going to buy into it?
If you're going to launch a new pool of available names, first of all, you have quite a bit of competition already in the market," Cole said, referring to dot-com, dot-net, dot-org and newer domains like dot-biz and dot-info. "If you're going to come along and try to carve out a niche in that pool somewhere, that's a pretty tall order."
The new domain also could confuse users because it is a subdivision of America's sovereign "dot-us" domain, Cole said, adding that Internet users might not easily warm to typing in Web addresses that end in "dot-kids dot-us," as opposed to a single suffix like "dot-com."
The Plot Thickens Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt
Listen to this opening paragraph by MSNBC reporter Brock Meeks:
The stench of scandal over Wall Street and corporate America this past year lingers like a toxic cloud. Americans watched their life savings evaporate as businesses tanked in a series of seemingly never-ending reports of corporate chieftains cooking the books. Financial chicanery, hidden by the smoke and mirror audits of once trusted accounting firms, became uncloaked in dozens of heated exchanges spawned in standing room only congressional hearings.
Given that Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, with 53 per cent of the population living under the poverty line, we're really not sure how influential games and toys are in the criminal scene in the country.
You Speak English, We'll Go Metric.
Northwestern history professor Ken Alder says the Metric system is no splendorous unitary wonder -- it's an arbitrary measure from an astronomer's error -- and it's no big deal that we've eschewed it for so long. Still, we'll have to capitulate eventually. Yeah maybe, Alvin Toffler
In the United States, the reluctance to adopt the metric system caused trouble as recently as 1999, when NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter failed because of a conflict in measurement systems: some engineers used English measurements, others used metric, and determinations were thrown off because of the lack of agreement.
Eventually, he says, Americans will fully adjust. The metric system was meant to be global, and the meter created by the surveyors has become the worldwide standard.
Tuesday, December 10, 2002 11:37 p.m.
Emperium et Libertas
Joanne Mariner's new one for Counterpunch covers the Miranda rights, infirm before the high court. I'm surprised the case hasn't received more attention.
Tuesday, December 10, 2002 10:47 p.m.
Humbling Thomas Pynchon completed V. -- one of the densest and most rewarding 20th century American novels -- at the age of 24.
Tuesday, December 10, 2002 10:25 p.m.
Heteroscedascity in Action
Just before my statistics exam began, I got up to get a glass of water. When I came back, my scantron was missing. Someone took it! It wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't for this: the likelyhood of opportunity to swipe someone else's scantron is very small. It's not just risky, but impossible odds that one would be left unaccompanied and available to a potential theif. A rational actor would not wait for the impossible opportunity to steal a scantron, but go immediatly to the bookstore so he is prepared for the examination
So I estimate that he already had one scantron in his possesion but needed another for an uncoming exam. The benefit to him was a total of twenty-six cents. But the loss to me was several minutes running --and carefully over ice-- across campus to the school bookstore when I could have been reviewing my notes.
Open-Source, Open-Ended
Tech Central Station has a bad history of publishing articles that compare open-source to plagarism or simply consider it socialism. That's why it's nice to see this excellent essay from Julian putting some misconceptions to rest.
A.I. Spammers
The NY Times today has an interesting article about a Carnagie Mellon professor working on a method to differentiate humans from computer programs in regards to spamming mechanisms. Dr. Udi Manber draws inspiration from Alan Turing's Turing Test.
Dr. Manuel Blum, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon who took part in the Yahoo conference, realized that the failures of artificial intelligence might provide exactly the solution Yahoo needed. Why not devise a new sort of Turing test, he suggested, that would be simple for humans but would baffle sophisticated computer programs.
Dr. Manber liked the idea, so with his Ph.D. student Luis von Ahn and others Dr. Blum devised a collection of cognitive puzzles based on the challenging problems of artificial intelligence. The puzzles have the property that computers can generate and grade the tests even though they cannot pass them. The researchers decided to call their puzzles Captchas, an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (on the Web at www.captcha.net).
Tuesday, December 10, 2002 12:36 a.m.
Spank You Kindly
The Armchair Economist, Steven Landsburg, is back with an essay explaining the economics of spanking.
Monday, December 9, 2002 11:54 p.m.
Bloggerly Love
I hope Bill keeps going with Academentia because his first six entrys are all fun
It's not always the content of post-structural crit. that irks me; it's the context. If I were in a cafe or someone's living room arguing about Hemingway's sexism, or the racial undertones of Lord of The Rings or whatever it would probably be quite fun. Sitting in a classroom and having some Professor play six degrees of regurgitation and expect us to take it (and especially him) seriously is annoying.
The German officials’ desire to decipher intellectual qualities or propensities by studying physical remains of the brain is not unique. Albert Einstein’s brain, for example, was sliced into 240 pieces after his death in 1955 and some of those portions have been exhibited.
Examination of Einstein’s brain has revealed distinctions that may account for greater neuron activity and better connections between neurons, according to scientists at the University of California at Berkeley. Physical qualities that might increase mathematical or spatial reasoning have also been found.
