Archive for July, 2004
Reuters is covering the story of how EPIC extracted through the Freedom of Information Act the fact that the Census Bureau pulled Arab-American data out and gave it to the Department of Homeland Paranoia.
I’m not sure what pisses me off more – that the DHP requested this info, that the Census Bureau provided it [...]
I love Craig Venter for his long view, his burning curiousity, and his adventurous spirit. And probably because he pisses so many people off in the scientific community for being a dilletante. And yet, he has done more for the development of the various *omics (genomics, proteomics) than almost all others to date. This article [...]
Premier Gordon Campbell has publicly stated that he would like to see BC go from being 16th to 10th in terms of being a North American technology centre. That is so Canadian! We need to be more like Singapore (no, not by fining people for chewing gum, although that is seeming like not a bad [...]
I was laughing so hard, my stomach hurt and I was in tears. I highly recommend this movie being hosted at Atom Films.
CNET has written an article on the fact that this film has now received 10.4 million unique visitors in July – more than three times the number that visited Kerry’s and Bush’s [...]
Dan Gillmor points out in this posting a great little Flash animation developed by the ACLU that shows a customer trying to buy a pizza but the pizza company is connected to a master database containing the client’s work and home addresses, recent purchases, credit record, and health insurance. Bizarre and chilling all at once.
Mark Morford strikes again with his brilliant take on the circus show that is about to be played out in the U.S.:
QUOTE
There is a sense of lawlessness, of desperation, among the Republican party right now. It is no longer a question of simply which party will run the show or which platform will have [...]
I have put these articles into this blog because I am seeing a whole host of news and interesting articles now that I refer to as evolution articles that cover ongoing mutation-based miniature arms-races where both sides are actively developing their skills and each side often holds the upper hand for only a short time [...]
Those crazy Nigerians are really making the news today. In this BBC report, Nigerians are apparently scared to answer their mobile phones for fear of dying immediately. A half-formed thought about giving Star Trek Communicators to extremely superstitious people from another planet comes to mind. Can you say global culture clash?
Well, it seems that the Nigerian “help us free this money” soft-sell scam is getting lower response rates these days so they have moved on to version 2 – the hard sell (article in the Register) – a direct demand for protection money with the threat of being “snipped and gunned down.” From the poor [...]
This article on CNET is worth a read.
These two postings from David Hornik at Venture Blog are definitely funny. It makes the most sense if you read his prior post called “Calendar Calisthenics” first (the serious one in which he laments his compressed schedule) and then you’ll see the humour in the follow-up “Calendar Calisthenics Redux” posting where his friend made fun [...]
This article on the Science & Consciousness review discusses the fact that brains appear to be persistent and consistent but their actual physical molecules are recycling in days, hours, and minutes. This makes me think of Steven Johnson’s excellent book Emergence: The Connected Lives Of Ants Brains Cities And Software wherein he discusses the life [...]
Roland Piquepaille has a great posting about an application called FaceTop that is definitely worth checking out. Basically, it puts a transparent video conference face on top of the actual screen documents so that the two people can “sit” and work together. Where ever they point, the mouse and cursor go. Neat idea. Probably needs [...]
Richard Smalley recently testified to the U.S. Senate on how how nanotechnologies and distributed power grids are the future of power.
Here is a wonderful article on Laurance Rockefeller, philanthropist, philosopher, mediator, venture capitalist, conservationist. It is inspiring to say the least.
I am betting that this new exoskeleton is okay for reasonable terrain but I wouldn’t want to try using it say, running along the Baden Powell Trail on wet slippery logs. And if you fall over, it would be interesting to know if you can actually get up again.
But check out this picture (from [...]
Here are some quotes that Jeff Harrow of The Harrow Group found:
“If I were just setting out today to make that drive to the West Coast to start a new business, I would be looking at biotechnology and nanotechnology.”
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com From the May 14, 2004 Nanotech Insider http://www.forbesinc.com/newsletters/nanotech/
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Michael Dell [...]
From one of my favourite newsletters, The Harrow Group Technology Report, comes this article on nanospheres, tiny little bits of material that were used in an amazingly successful cancer killing experiment:
As published in pages 171 – 176 of Issue 2 of the June 25 Cancer Letters (an abstract is freely available while the full text [...]
I love this article on Bob Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace, who along with others is competing in the X Prize competition for $10 million to build a private space ship.
The space station will cost approximately $200 MILLION when it’s completed, versus the current International Space Station which has cost $50 BILLION – 250x more.
“The [...]
After many years of watching technology trends, release cycles, and waves of innovation wash through the business community, I realized, along with many others, that there are some simple principles of software development which I have termed the Point-Oh-No Rule (thanks Gary!) and the Rule of Threes.
The Point-Oh-No! Rule states that any major [...]
