RFID and MythBusters

I'm not normally one to get all paranoid about RFID, but the fact that this was effectively censored should scare you at least a little (you only need to watch the first 2 minutes)...

We're awesome

The NYT says so.

Science fiction projects and their actual cost

An interesting little list compiled by Wired on a few sci-fi-ish projects and what they would actually cost to do. Example: a maglev train that could "beat an airliner" from New York to LA would be $70 billion. (I suspect it's really more than that considering the terrain sculpting, testing, etc. that would be entailed).

Engineers -> terrorists

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: don't piss me off.

"Silence! I _kill_ you!"

Huh...maybe there's something to this Internet thing

You know, I reluctantly have to admit: many of these startups don't seem like half-bad ideas (except the natural language search engine...I tried Ask Jeeves, it sucked, and Google has far more talent than you guys do anyway).

Signs you might start worrying about Microsoft's future include

...when the army starts buying macs for security.

Actually, I think the combination of virtual machines (because they allow you to run one OS for backwards compatibility and another OS for newer stuff that actually, you know, works, thus providing a migration path out of Windows) and web applications (because they only need a web browser to work and are much easier to deal with maintenance-wise on the client's side) are the more likely downfall of Microsoft. But that won't happen for a while. 5 years at the very earliest, likely longer.

Generational divide in copyright

The obvious reaction is, "Well, duh."

But, of course, that's simplistic. Or at least, the issue merits further analysis. Why are kids much more willing to brazenly ignore copyright? I think the simplest answer is that they have grown up with modern technology a) that makes it easy to the point of being innate to copy data, and b) for which the instruments of copyright enforcement (i.e., DRM) present a perpetual annoyance and frustration when trying to do simple things like use a song that normally lives on their computer on their mp3 player when they go to the gym.

I honestly don't know what the right answer is when it comes to what public policy should be. As I've said before, I think watermarking, if it worked, would be a better solution than DRM. In general, I'm a big fan of using instruments of accountability for illegal activity over instruments of prevention. Indeed, that's the main problem with music distribution on the Internet. Think about it: when you walk into a toy store, you can play with the toys before you buy them. Hell, you can generally even walk out with them without paying and often get away with it. So why does anybody pay for anything? Partly out of an inner morality, yes, but I think more importantly because they stand to get caught. They, personally, can be seen walking out of the store. They can be caught on video with something they haven't paid for in their hands.

The point is that there's accountability. There ostensibly isn't prevention. It's not like there's a giant magnet that will suck the toy out of your hands. You aren't _prevented_ from doing something illegal (in the same way that your car's accelerator will not prevent you from going more than 65 mph). No, what keeps you from stealing, and what keeps you from speeding, is accountability if you do those things.

The Discovery Institute's talking about the Internet now???

Shit...really? _That_ Discovery Institute? Why are we listening to them?

Oh, and please don't use the term "scholar" and "Discovery Institute" in the same sentence. It physically pains me.

It shouldn't surprise me that the conclusion of Captain ID is that, "...and therefore net neutrality is bad." Incidentally, let me point out before moving on the following passage in the Ars Technica article:

"The first two [of Captain ID's] examples have nothing to do with any sort of commonly-understood concept of 'Net neutrality (neither Google, MySpace, nor Dell are network operators), but one sees what Swanson means."

How typical of Discovery Institute publications: "Well, it's kind of incoherent nonsense, but we can sorta kinda see the point the guy was ineptly trying to make."

First, let's point out that this is just the classic last-mile problem being rehashed. This has nothing to do with the capacity of the Internet itself. It's an economic rather than a technical problem.

Further, it's alarmist horse shit. They make it sound like we will continually need to upgrade wires into everybody's homes. We don't. Install fiber once, and the problem is basically solved, at least for the next few decades. The problem just becomes who is going to pay for the wire. And hey, psst, you know what? If private enterprise is balking at paying for it, we could...*gulp*...get government to do it. It's common infrastructure. That's supposed to be part of what government does. We did it with roads, we did it with electrical wires, and we did it with telephone wires. Why is fiber so different? Government builds the wires and then leases them to ISPs. You get the side benefit of inducing competition in the ISP market. Come on people, it's just not that hard!

If a bunch of schmucks from Utah can do it, I think we can handle the problem, don't you?

Business people apparently don't understand English words

What you said:

“Universities don’t innovate,” says Curtis R. Carlson, chief executive of SRI International, a nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, Calif., that bought what remained of RCA’s lab. “Innovation means you get it out so people can use it. The university is not going to take it to the world.”

What you meant:

"While universities do most of the innovation, they tend not to productize. Those innovations don't always turn out to be practical, cheap, scalable, or a thousand other things that a functioning product depends on, particularly in the time horizons that the short attention spans of MBAs like me can wrap their heads around."

We make orders of magnitude less money than you do; the least you could do is give credit where credit is due. You might have heard of a little company called Google? Care to guess whether that innovative little venture came out of a university or not? Want me to send you the list of companies that were started out of Stanford, Berkeley, or UW alone (nevermind MIT, Harvard, etc.)?

...and, I'm back to Firefox

Blogger no likey Safari. It adds weird div tags to everything, and ever time I try to paste something into the blogger window, it appears at the bottom of my screen. Weird.

Plus, Safari seems to crash too. I think it's Flash killing both of them. Take me back, Firefox?

An automated way to turn hormones and desperation into money!

It seems the Turing Test has finally been passed: a robot that can flirt its way into guys' personal information at the rate of 10 an hour!

Have I mentioned what an awesome species we are?

"Here comes another bubble"

The state of the business side of tech gives me a headache.

Software patent grumble

The more I see stories like this lawsuit against Apple for the iPhone's visual voicemail, the more angry I become at the state of IP law in the United States.

This is stupid.  Anybody can see that.  They're honestly claiming a patent on the ability to touch someone's name and hear a voicemail from that person?  Really?  _That's_ your significant scientific achievement, your innovation?

It's retarded.  You shouldn't be able to patent something any schmuck who has used a computer can think up in the course of having a cup of coffee, for fuck's sake.  Patents were supposed to promote innovation.  Now any time anybody designs any kind of hardware or software at all, they get sued for it.  It's ridiculous.

The failure of OLPC

This BBC article gives a nice summary of why I think the One Laptop Per Child project is misguided. First and foremost:

"In an interview with the BBC, Nigeria's education minister questioned the need for laptops in poorly equipped schools.

Dr Igwe Aja-Nwachuku said: "What is the essence of introducing One Laptop per Child when they don't have seats to sit down and learn; when they don't have uniforms to go to school in, where they don't have facilities?"

The whole concept is...okay, I'm not going to say dumb. Its heart is in the right place. But really, this is running before you can walk. Spend the money on teachers, desks...infrastructure, for chrissakes, before you go blowing $100 million on an unproven technology without the lesson plans, teacher training, etc. to go along with it.

Nevermind. Yes, it is dumb. And now Negroponte is spouting conspiracy theories about Intel and Microsoft undermining them. Actually, the problem isn't so much conspiracy theories as, well, the fact that he seems surprised that an effort to flood a good portion of the world's untapped markets with new hardware and new software might, you know, catch Intel and Microsoft's attention. Umm...duh? These are multi-billion dollar industries. You expected them to roll over out of some kind of corporate morality?

Parasailing freighters

Very cool, but there's an important, unaddressed question:

"The Beluga shipping company that owns the 460-foot Beluga said it expects the kites to decrease fuel consumption by up to 50% in optimal cases as well as a cutback of the emission of greenhouse gases on sea by 10 to 20%. Interestingly, the ship will be hauling windmills from Esbjerg, Denmark to Houston, Texas."

...which is, why the fuck is Houston stockpiling windmills?

Color me dubious

A portable nuclear reactor, huh? Safe, you say?

“In fact, we prefer to call it a ‘drive’ or a ‘battery’ or a ‘module’ in that it’s so safe,” Hyperion spokeswoman Deborah Blackwell says. “Like you don’t open a double-A battery, you just plug [the reactor] in and it does its chemical thing inside of it. You don’t ever open it or mess with it."

Hey! Wait a minute! What you're describing is...is...Happy Fun Ball!

The Washlet

These people apparently have a way, way, way too intimate relationship with their toilet. (very mildly nsfw)

Minority Report-ish nerdery

How to make a Minority Report-like interface with a Wii remote, some reflective tape and some infrared LEDs.

Seattle light rail - it lives!!!

Egads! Looky what I saw on the bus today!



They wuz testing it 'n stuff. Are they really going to be orange?

Also, I was on a 2 Express bus tonight and it passed another 2 Express. I felt a slight tear in the fabric of space time as it happened.

Google releases Android

No, this is not the beginning of some bizarre science fiction movie. "Android" is their attempt to create an open source OS for future phone platform development. (aside: you expecting an ad supported free phone? What are you, retarded?)

What I actually hope comes out of this is for Apple (and AT&T, I guess) to stop being greedy whores and open up their fucking platform. Much as I like the idea of an open development environment, I have no faith that anyone at Google or anyone that uses their platform can design a UI any better than the idiots at Microsoft, whereas if Apple's proved anything it's that they are masters of the user interface.