Slashback: Hippocampus, Matter, Blogs 187
Why not a quarter for 15 minutes of access? amy's robot writes "After announcing plans to do so just last week, Verizon has activated the WiFi hotspots built in to their Manhattan payphones. Here's official info and a FAQ along with a map of the hotposts. The catch: you have to be a Verizon Online subscriber to use them, but they're free if you are."
So the blogs can stop fleeing to the hills. GeekLife.com writes "Dave Winer received a note from Google PR stating 'Just want to be sure you know that there's been no consideration of removing weblogs from our index.' Seems The Register's speculation may have somehow been unfounded."
I'd rather see a patent for smart toothpaste. Wil McCarthy writes "Last week on this forum, there was some heated discussion about my nonfiction book, Hacking Matter , and specifically about the patent application included in the book's appendix. I was accused of the intellectual property equivalent of cybersquatting: patenting a speculative idea and then sitting back and waiting 'for someone to actually do the hard work of inventing a useful product before gouging them for royalties.' In this scenario, my book has a chilling effect on an entire industry, stifling innovation.
What may have been lost in the shuffle is the fact that I'm not 'just' a science fiction writer or science journalist. First and foremost I'm an engineer, and to the best of my knowledge the idea of "wellstone," or bulk programmable matter woven from fibers surfaced with quantum dots, is original to me. The patent merely codifies these facts. Also, notably, the field of quantum dot research is lively and growing, but not at all focused on materials science applications. Thus there is no extant programmable matter industry to be squelched by my efforts.
Nor have I, per the discussion, patented a device which a person skilled in the art could not produce. It's true that some embodiments of the invention require nanometer precision in three dimensions and are thus beyond present-day manufacturing capabilities, but other less capable embodiments could be produced today. I didn't provide a working model to the patent office because I wasn't required to, having filed a Provisional Patent Application prior to the RPA.
As I make clear in the book, my interest is in hastening the arrival of programmable matter as both an industry and a field of inquiry. My partner and I are presently engaged in discussions to fund the development of a prototype quantum dot fiber which would be broadly, programmably self-doping at liquid nitrogen temperatures. We're also quite willing to license the technology to interested parties at non-gouge rates, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply foolish. If my aim is to change the world, what do I stand to gain by stifling development of my own invention?"
Sorting through the evidence. CowboyRobot writes "Edward Tufte (known for his book, Envisioning Information) analyzes the Boeing explanation for the Columbia disaster, pointing out design flaws and how those flaws conceal ambiguity in the report."
Tufte's analyis is the kind that should be applied to many more situations -- he dissects the way reassuring, blandly obfuscated PowerPoint slides can be used to slip through statements that might cause justified concern if spoken in plain language.
Dr. Whonow? Mechanik writes "You may remember the previous Slashdot story about the BBC doing a Flash treatment of one of Douglas Adams's Dr. Who scripts, Shada. Just wanted to let everyone know that Part Two is now available."
Welcome to Stepford. ragingmime writes "The Boston Globe has an interesting story on the Polyphonic "hit song science" technology that Slashdot mentioned a while ago. The Globe mentions specific things that the software measures and give opinions from various people in the music industry. It's an interesting - and kinda creepy - read."
Boilerplate or camera tricks? andrel writes "In his Slashdot interview Michael Robertson answered question 10 with:
I believe that if you purchase a product, you should have the right to change it, move it, or alter it for your own personal needs. The seller should have the right to say that you void the warranty or refuse to support it if you change it, but you should still have right as the purchaser to make that choice. This goes for music, software and personal computers. [emphasis added]
Too bad Lindows.Com doesn't share his values. The license agreement for LindowsOS explicitly prohibits users from modifying it (section 1.1.a.iv for individuals and 1.1.b.iv for businesses). As for voiding the warranty, well according to section 4 there wasn't one there in the first place. The EULA also claims that you may not allow a visiting friend to use your LindowsOS computer, nor may you use it to conduct business(both in section 1.1.a.iii)."
Robertson reads Slashdot; I hope we'll see his reaction to this soon.
Imagine the course of a canoe paddled by Microsoft and SCO. SolipsistX writes "The Seattle Times is reporting that Microsoft now says that the iLoo is not a joke. Apparently, execs killed the project after it became a laughing stock. The announcement yesterday that it was a joke was caused by miscommunication, says Microsoft. Needless to say, this does not help Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative."
Re: Lindows (Score:2, Interesting)
Patentable? (Score:3, Interesting)
So what makes it patentable if a person with ordinary skills in the art can build one? A patent is supposed to protect inventions beyond the abilities of those with ordinary skills at the time of application.
This will help you remember Sammy Jankis (Score:4, Interesting)
No, the Guy Pearce joke should be about Memento [otnemem.com]. In that movie, Pearce played a man who could not form new memories because of traumatic damage to his hippocampus. (Saying much further would spoil the plot.)
Audio Blogger, Picture Blogger, Beer Goggles (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually sounds really cool. Has anyone used or tested this? What's the filesize on, say, a 30 second clip?
How long until we see the first "I just got hit on and you won't guess what his pickup line was!" blog?
Now imagine the new "Picture Blog" service that works with photo-cellphones. Now that would give rise to an awesome blog called:
"I'm too drunk to tell; how about you guys vote on how she'd look without beer goggles?"
Re:Anyone notice.... (Score:1, Interesting)
Here's how it works:
- Douglas Adams writes "Shada" episode for Dr. Who
- Dr. Who episode "Shada" gets partially filmed, but unfinished due to BBC strike
- Shada goes onto the shelf and is never finished nor aired
- Douglas Adams takes "Shada" story, changes a few details, calls it "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" figuring he can still make a buck off it and no one will ever know
- Problem #1: BBC many years later finishes "Shada" with Narration from Tom Baker and some stills, and releases on video. Oops, cat is out of the bag
- Problem #1: BBC Makes "Shada" into flash animated story, cat is definately out of the bag and down the street.
Just don't forget your peril-sensitive sunglasses.The Register and blogs (Score:4, Interesting)
Google bought blogger. They want to bring mass, cheap, digital publishing to everyone. Its a great bet and will connect more people to the google brand than the USENET archives did. Joe Sixpack doesn't care or even know wtf usenet is, but if he can blog with the click of a button and have his buddies find it on google instantly, well then something interesting might happen.
Self weblog-type publishing is fairly easy, but its going to get technophobe easy with google. Give them some time and they'll make the standard blogger tools of today look like a slackware install on an old 486.
Like someone said the digital divide today is between those who serve content and those who don't. Google isn't stupid. Sorry anti-blog people, but you're going to have to deal with cheap, egalitarian publishing on the net for a long, long time. Sure beats the default msn.com homepage, eh?
Re:Come on now (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft may have screwed this one up with some really poor internal communications and overzealous PR reps, but the media also has to take some blame for some really poor journalism.
While a few MS reps did try to spin things as "an April Fool's joke", the story with the widest circulation (and it's still being published in some papers as late as today) was the one with the "hoax" headline attached to a story that made it clear that it was NOT a hoax, but was simply an overhyped pilot project. Of course all the editorials and TV news programs simply read the misleading headline about a "hoax" without reading the rest of story and turned this into an even bigger story, while most Slashdot comments seemed to pick out the obvious discrepancies right away.
Slashdot readers may be criticized for not always reading the stories but at least they seem to do much better than the mass media in this respect. That the media will continue to spin this story over the next couple of days is almost as sad, irresponsible, and scary as the recently exposed fraudulent NYT reporter.
Of course, it's fun to laugh at Microsoft too!
Re:fixing the link on the main page (Score:2, Interesting)
The true problem that needs to be fixed is that google needs to be able to grok well-formed sentences and return appropriate results. I hope that my future kids will one day be able to search the web with something better than boolean logic with a page rank assist.
Re:Disturbing trend in WiFi (Score:2, Interesting)
And of course they can charge you. It's for their bandwidth. They are not charging for the spectrum.
Divot.
Tragedy of the commons- It's the buzzword the cool kids are using...