dietsch ::

Some testing notes

I get this weird behavior with UserLand sometimes where it either fails to publish an update, leaving only previous updates on the page, or it provides only a blank white page where my blog should be. It usually self-corrects, but not always quickly enough for my impatience. I can sometimes force it to update by pushing through a couple of test messages, so if you ever see that, now you'll know why. Sorry for the annoyance or inconvenience.

"I'll blow up all of you white motherfuckers"

War angst. Tuesday last week, I was riding home from work on the F train. The train was crowded and so I was leaning against a door--the door opposite most of the entrances in that part of town so I wouldn't have to move for people entering and leaving. Around about 23rd Street, an agitated man got on the train. Although I was listening to music on my iPod, I could hear him muttering to himself. The mutterings grew louder until he was literally shouting. "That motherfucker sent us to war? For what?! What are we trying to do? My baby brother's over there and I don't know if he's alive or dead. Did you see the pictures on the news? Those boys were shot dead. Their brains were all around 'em on the ground! Their blood was everywhere! My baby brother's over there and I don't know if he's alive or dead!" This man was also standing by a door, but because he was on the side where the door opened at each stop, passengers had to pass him to enter or leave. He shouted at them all: "My baby brother's over there!" As he ranted, he grew increasingly agitated. "That stupid white motherfucker sent my baby brother to die. And for what?! What's the point?! My brother gonna die and for what?! Why's he over there? Why's any of 'em over there?" I watched others on the train shuffle, try to look away. A few people laughed nervously, some moved away from him, others remained near him as if making a point. "That stupid white motherfucker sent my baby brother over there and if he dies... If my brother dies, I'm going to shoot all of you white motherfuckers. I'll come back here and I'll blow up this motherfucking train car and I'll blow up all you white motherfuckers." I still had my iPod on but I could hear him even with the volume all the way up. He took a seat when one opened and berated two women standing nearby: "Get yer goddamn white asses outta my face! What makes you think I want your asses in my face. I'll shoot you white motherfuckers." He kept on like this, talking to everyone, no one, himself. Shouting. When the train pulled into Delancey, I remembered that the door would open behind me. I stepped backwards out of the door and hustled to the next car.

CFP audio files available online

Barry Steinhardt's notice from the front page of the CFP 2003 site: 

...I am pleased to announce that audio recordings of all the plenary sessions and keynote addresses will be posted on this site at the end of each day during the conference. The audio files will be available both in a streaming format and for download as MP3s.

This is excellent news for me, since my work schedule and finances will keep me from attending this year. And as my roommate just pointed out to me, I can stick the MP3s on my iPod and listen on the train! Anna, if you're around, this means you'll probably be able to hear Lessig's keynote. I really need to email these people with my gratitude.

What's Fugue State worth?

Take Stock in Weblogs. Take Stock in Weblogs - Blogshares is a web-based simulation of stock market where the commodity is weblog linkage. Currently, Metafilter is worth $27774.44. What's your weblog worth? [MetaFilter]

Probably nothing, but I'm working through the registration process to find out.

"Revolution OS" released without CSS protection

What's So Free About This DVD?. A documentary filmmaker who labored for years on a film about open-source software programmers -- including Linus Torvalds -- releases it on DVD, without any copyright protection. He hopes people won't pirate it. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]

Jessamyn on PATRIOT Act

Uber-cool librarian Jessamyn West discusses USA Patriot, its effects on libraries, and why you should care:

You should care about the PATRIOT Act if you frequent libraries or bookstores, use pay phones, use an Internet service provider, go to school, go to the doctor, use credit cards or banks, have a lawyer, leave the country, go to jail, belong to an activist organization, read alternative publications [like this one] or know anyone who is contemplating any of the above activities, or maybe if you’re just a fan of freedom or the Bill of Rights. Why? Because the assumptions you may be making about your privacy, and your right to it, may be all wrong. Your rights to do all of these things, or do them free of surveillance and/or harassment, have changed in the past two years.

[Slingshot, via BoingBoing; see more Jessamyn at Jessamyn.com and librarian.net]

Putting the Blinders Back on Big Brother

BusinessWeek on creeping BigBrotherism (follow link for full story):

In wartime, privacy and civil liberties are usually among the casualties. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, the right of prisoners to petition their case before a judge. Woodrow Wilson approved the arrest of pacifists during World War I. And Franklin D. Roosevelt interned thousands of Japanese Americans in World War II. All three arguably made the wrong decision. But all three also reversed those excesses when the conflicts ended.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11 -- and with the U.S. invasion of Iraq now in full force -- the balance is once again shifting toward security at the expense of privacy.

[From BusinessWeek Online, via Privacy Digest]

"My name is Sonny Payne"

Every afternoon, on the F train, somewhere between York St. and Bergen: "Pardon me, my name is Sonny Payne. I'm homeless and I'm hungry. If you don't have it, I understand, 'cause I don't have it. But if can you spare some change, a sandwich, a piece of fruit, I'd appreciate it." Every afternoon, Sonny Payne steps onto the F train at York St. and makes his way slowly along the train, switching cars at each stop. Sonny, an elderly black man with a white grizzled beard, shuffles through the car, back bent, an F-train stocking cap on his head, carrying a black plastic bag. Today, he carried a box of store-brand corn flakes. I see this man at least three days a week. I've never seen him on the F in Manhattan; he only appears at York St. or at stops further along the Brooklyn segment of the F. I've never given him money. [Edited 5/21/04 to correct the spelling of his name and the beginning of his speech.]

Synapse chip taps into brain chemistry

New Scientist reports on creation of artificial synapse:

Since synapses are typically around 50 nanometres across, and each chemical puff contains just a few thousand molecules, building an artificial synapse is a huge challenge. But Mark Peterman and Harvey Fishman at Stanford University in California are getting close. They told a biophysics conference in Texas earlier in March that they have created four "artificial synapses" on a silicon chip one centimetre square.

To cells on the surface of the device, the artificial synapse is simply a hole in the silicon. But each hole opens into a pipeline etched into a plastic layer on the back of the chip, connected at both ends to a reservoir of neurotransmitter. When an electric field is applied, the neurotransmitter is pumped through the pipeline, and a little of it squeezes out of the hole, stimulating nearby cells.

[via Boing Boing Blog]

What a relief!

Recently there has been some confusion as to the origin of French’s mustard. For the record, French’s would like to say, there is nothing more American than French’s mustard....

This is not a joke. EDIT, 10/26/04: The link above is broken, but many webbies have archived it. I wonder, if you pitted French's mustard against Heinz catsup, who'd win?

CFP 2003 still a go

13th Annual Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy will go on. CFP 2003 will go on as planned in New York from April 2-4. [Privacy Digest]

Cuban journos jailed

Online Journalists Jailed in Cuba. The Cuban government has arrested 10 independent journalists, most of whom publish their work on the Internet. Havana says the reporters are part of a U.S. effort to foment political opposition in the country. By Julia Scheeres. [Wired News]

I have a hard time accepting that the Bush administration understands the Web well enough to even try to "foment political opposition" via the Internet.

Travel art archive

Get me a ticket for an aeroplane.... Graphic Design from the 1920s and 1930s in Travel Ephemera . Amazing collection of posters, road maps, steamship and airline timetables, (more timetables here), post cards, luggage labels (more labels here and here), brochures and more. Seeing this stuff makes me wish I had been born seventy-five years earlier (and with an obscene amount of money.) (Warning: the site is seriously painful to look at, but the content's good. Link via Coudal.) [MetaFilter]

I love stuff like this, as anyone who's seen my apartment knows. I can't even begin to look at this right now, though. And, yeah, the site design is painful, but the ad reproductions are beautiful.

In space, it's never Miller time

Are you a Boinger?. The good news? My Comics Page is hosting the great "Bloom County" strips in order, six daily strips one day and a Sunday strip the next (that's a week in two days, kids). The bad news? You have to pay $10.00 to see them. [MetaFilter]

Salon.com licenses to libraries

Jenny Levine reports:

Last year I said I thought Salon should look into licensing content to libraries, and now they're finally doing something about it. Adrienne Crew, their Content Licensing Manager, sent me the following:

"Thought you'd like to know that Salon's Premium Institutional Subscription program for libraries is finally up and running.... Currently we are offering a one year subscription in the $300-400 range and feeds all access to the articles on the site via an IP authentication system or a single password."

More details as I get them.

[The Shifted Librarian]

Inside Google

Fast Company: How Google Grows...and Grows...and Grows. If it takes too long to deliver results or an additional word of text on the home page is too distracting, Google risks losing people's attention. If the search results are lousy, or if they are compromised by advertising, it risks losing people's trust. Attention and trust are sacrosanct. [Tomalak's Realm]

Peek inside Google.

Death knell for subway token

Farewell, Subway Token. The New York subway token, underground currency for 50 years, will be sold for the last time on April 12, officials say. By Richard Pérez-Peña. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

Barbie blogs.

Barbie has a blog.

La. public school outs student, forces him to read Bible

ACLU challenges Little Rock school for harassing gay student

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging officials at Little Rock, Ark.'s Jacksonville Junior High School over what it says is repeated punishment of a 14-year-old student for being openly gay. In a letter to school officials sent Thursday, the ACLU demanded that the school stop violating the student's rights and remove all unconstitutional disciplinary actions taken against him from his record by March 21 or face legal action. In its letter, the ACLU said that that school officials "outed" the gay student, Thomas McLaughlin, to his parents against his wishes and have since told him he must not discuss being gay while at school, forced him to read from the Bible, and disciplined him for being open about his sexual orientation.

[From Advocate.com, via MetaFilter; full story at link]

Do mass e-mails equal trespassing, or free speech?

E-Mail Case Goes to Trial Again. The California Supreme Court will hear arguments over a lower court's ruling that e-mail from a disgruntled former Intel engineer to his former co-workers are a form of virtual trespassing. By Julia Scheeres. [Wired News]

The guy emailed 30,000 former co-workers to rant about Intel. Two courts have now decided it's the equivalent of trespassing, and now it goes before the California Supreme Court. Intriguing.

Buy yerself a new hippocampus

Didja bursted yer hippocampus? Replace it!

World's first brain prosthesis revealed

The world's first brain prosthesis - an artificial hippocampus - is about to be tested in California. Unlike devices like cochlear implants, which merely stimulate brain activity, this silicon chip implant will perform the same processes as the damaged part of the brain it is replacing.... [New Scientist]

Damn the Senate

Senate Votes to Ban Disputed Abortion Procedure. After an emotional and caustic debate, the Senate voted overwhelmingly today to ban a highly disputed procedure that its critics call partial-birth abortion. By Carl Hulse. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

Forbes on the Eldred Act

Lessig writes:

So I received a copy of the March 31 issue of Forbes (not yet online), with a note from the editor in chief: "You might be interested in one of the editorials on page 28." On page 27-28, Steve Forbes endorses the proposal of the Eldred Act. More good news about progress on that front soon, but I am proud to count Mr. Forbes as someone who gets it. Now if we could only find an equivalently prominent Democrat. [Lessig Blog]

...and to think that I blogged it on Newberry Street

Free Wireless on Newberry Street. A computer reseller in Boston sets up a wireless network that gives denizens of cafés and bookstores in the vicinity free access to the Internet -- as long as they don't mind viewing an occasional pop-up ad. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]

Boston's Newberry Street is one of my favorite places in the U.S. Now I like it even better. I'd put up with an occasional pop-up (I guess depending on how occasional) for the benefit of free Wi-Fi. Nifty idea.

Benetton tracks customers using smart tags

What Your Clothes Say About You. Clothing designer Benetton plans to weave radio frequency ID chips into its garment tags. While Benetton is poised to save money by tracking the clothes with RFID, it could also mean a loss of customers' privacy. By Elisa Batista. [Wired News]

What the hell, everyone else is blogging on this. The gist of this is, these ID chips will be woven into the tags, and anyone with the proper equipment can scan you and learn whether you're wearing Benetton clothes. Now, this will help Benetton track its merchandise, from manufacture to point of sale, much more efficiently, but privacy advocates worry about the implications.

Apollo Lunar Surface Journal

The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Journals, records and some images from the Apollo lunar missions. [MetaFilter]

Neat. Photos, movies (in QuickTime format), PDFs of the mission reports, commentaries by the astronauts involved. Very nice work.

BALANCE Act

U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has introduced a bill into Congress that's designed to protect fair use rights. The gist of it is to modify those portions of the DMCA that prevent consumers from fair use of copyrighted materials. [PDF text of bill; section-by-section analysis of bill.]

Microsoft gets takedown of infringing site

Microsoft speaks, site goes dark. Neowin.net was knocked offline for nearly 24 hours in an uncommonly harsh application of a widely used Internet copyright enforcement tool. [CNET News.com]

Quantum Computing

Harnessing Atoms to Create Superfast Computers. George Johnson's book makes the arcane topic of quantum computing accessible and understandable. By Ian Foster. [New York Times: Technology]

This looks like one for the Amazon wishlist. Hint hint hint...

3rd Circuit Appeals Court nixes COPA

Wired News: Court Nixes Child Net Porn Law. The court said that in practice, the law made it too difficult for adults to view material protected by the First Amendment, including many non-pornographic sites. The law, signed by President Clinton and endorsed by President Bush, has never been enforced. [Tomalak's Realm]

Courts have made this argument before: Taking away the rights of adults, in the interest of protecting children, is not kosher. The full text of the decision is online, in PDF format.

I hate the teevee

So, I came home tonight to find a production crew set up and filming an episode of Third Watch in my neighborhood. Equipment trailers, craft services trucks, and "talent" trailers all lined Seventh Ave. for three blocks. Second St. was blocked off to traffic and a film crew and an ambulance were out in front of a brownstone, filming at a basement unit. Looks like the scene will show someone being removed from the apartment and loaded into the ambulance. Pretty cool. I've never watched that show, but I'll probably try to catch it (a PA told me it should air in a month) to see my neighborhood on the teevee.

"We shall see heaven shining like a jewel."

As noted below, last night, I finally saw the Jean Cocteau Repertory's production of Uncle Vanya. I was looking forward to this for two reasons: first, I'd never seen or even read any of Chekhov's work, and that's a cultural deficiency that actually kind of embarassed me. Vanya, of course, is among his most famous plays, and the Cocteau's production was a perfect opportunity to go. The second reason was because my roommate played Waffles in this production, a small comedic part in which he did a great job. The cast includes several gifted, veteran performers, whose expertise was enjoyable to watch. Because this production features the Cocteau's four most experienced players, and because it's directed by Eve Adamson, the Cocteau's founder, Christopher recommended Vanya to me as an example of the Cocteau at its finest. I can't personally vouch for any of that, but I can say I had a fine time.

Pardon je, mais savez-vous le chemin vers Carnegie Hall?

Yesterday, I took the F into Manhattan, on my way to a performance of Uncle Vanya at the Jean Cocteau Repertory. A woman seated nearby was reading a book. I had noticed her get on the train at Bergen Street. I noticed, of course, because she was pretty and I like pretty women, but her prettiness doesn't really affect the story at all. Near her was another woman, who had boarded the train at Jay Street. She was reading some pages that had been stapled together. Now, these women didn't seem to know each other at all, which made the exchange between them all the more puzzling. I glanced up to see the woman with the pages turn to the other woman, point to a section of the paper she was reading, and ask her a question about it, in French. The woman with the book recoiled, I assume in surprise at being addressed in French, but proceeded to answer the woman, in fluent French. They talked in French for a few minutes, and then I saw the woman with the book laugh to herself and shake her head. I was close enough to see that she was reading a Bill Bryson book, one of his travelogues, but I couldn't tell whether it was a French edition. When I exited at W 4, the attractive woman with the book also left the train and I almost asked her how the other woman knew she spoke French, but I decided I liked letting the story end on a mystery.