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Michael Scott
points us to a very interesting analysis of how to different appeals courts have very different interpretations of our federal anti-hacking law. The Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act was passed by Congress to create criminal sanctions for malicious computer
hacking. The problem, of course, is that whenever you have politicians passing laws about
technology, they may be a bit vague. So, the way hacking was defined was effectively to say that
the perpetrator accessed info "without authorization" or (more troubling) that the activity
"exceeds authorized access." Now, it's pretty obvious what's meant by this. If you're
breaking into parts of a computer system where you don't belong for nefarious purposes, you're
probably violating this law.
But that's not how all courts are interpreting it. The article notes that the Seventh Circuit, in
International Airport Centers, LLC v. Citrin, found that an employee violated this law by deleting
information on his laptop (which would have presented evidence of a breach of contract by the guy),
after he had resigned. Obviously, that's a totally different situation than what the CFAA was
intended to cover, but the court found that once he quit, he was no longer authorized to use the
laptop, and doing so was effectively hacking. That seems like an extreme stretch of the law. But at
least some other courts are following suit: For example, in a case in the U. S. District Court
for the Eastern District of Missouri, the district court relied upon the Citrin decision and held
that, even if employees were authorized to access their employer's computer records, they cannot
use such authorization (and, hence, their access can become "unauthorized"), if they use the
information for their own interests.... The court concluded that the employer sufficiently alleged
that the employees "acted without authorization when they obtained [the employer's] information for
their personal use and in contravention of their fiduciary duty to their employer." Yes, you
read that right. If you use your employer's computer simply to access the company's data for your
personal use, you may be guilty of computer hacking. That's quite clearly not what the law was
intended to cover.
Thankfully, the Ninth Circuit (which all too often comes out with weird decisions) seems to have
gotten this one right: In declining to adopt the Seventh Circuit's interpretation of "without
authorization," the court held that a "person uses a computer 'without authorization'... [only] [1]
when the person has not received permission to use the computer for any purpose (such as when a
hacker accesses someone's computer without any permission), or [2] when the employer has rescinded
to access the computer and the defendant uses the computer anyway."... The Ninth Circuit declined
to hold that the "defendant's authorization to obtain information stored in a company computer is
'exceeded' if the defendant breaches a state law duty of loyalty to an employer" because no such
language was found in the CFAA.... The Ninth Circuit noted that because the CFAA was "primarily a
criminal statute," and because there was ambiguity as to the meaning of the phrase "without
authorization," it would construe any ambiguity against the government.... Obviously, I agree
that this is the proper interpretation of the law -- and stretching the definition of criminal
hacking "without authorization" to things like accessing personal information on an employer's
computer is dangerous. Of course, with the split rulings, it's likely that eventually this will get
to the Supreme Court to sort out, and hopefully they get it right. Or, in the meantime, Congress
could clarify the law -- but chances are they'd just make it worse.
The latest - after last year buying France-Soir, the country’s smallest daily, for €50
million, shipbuilder’s son Alexander Pugachyov is now spending a further
€20 million on a marketing campaign to take it mainstream. He’s
upping the print run by 20 times, has halved the cover price and has more than doubled
newsroom staff from 40 to 100.
Jealous?There’s no part of this that makes immediate sense. In
fact, contrasted with the cutbacks, climbdowns and contraction many parts of the industry are
seeing, it looks like madness.
...
The Pugachyov scenario in France mirrors that of Alexander Lebedev in the UK ... The former KGB
agent took the London Evening Standard, whose
circulation was falling, off DMGT’s hands for just a nominal fee, forewent cover-price
income in favour of free distribution on a higher print run, and pledged a £25
million investment over three years.
“£25 million investment??” That’s unheard of in today’s
news publishing economy... Now Lebedev’s set to repeat the act by buying The Independent.
I think I can help Mr Andrews understand what's going on. It has nothing to do with "saving
journalism."
These are prominent publications in their country. They are being bought not to make money but as
vehicles to influence politics and society.
It's not the first time this has happened. Hearst used his newspapers for political influence,
and many others have done the same.
Investing in propaganda...
The Russians, in particular, understand the power of media. At the heart of the Bolshevik party
was its newspaper, Pravda.
The Bolshevik party wasn't investing in journalism when it funded and published Pravda -- it was
investing in having its ideas discussed in society, and in the political realm.
These are ultra-rich individuals, they aren't buying the publications as investments in that
business, but as an investment that will aid their other businesses.
Mr Andrews notes that Alexander Pugachyov is the son of a Russian shipbuilder and that the French
government may place an order for four battleships. I think that's a pretty big clue that the
investment isn't about "saving journalism."
Media businesses are often loss-leaders that help drive other businesses. You see this today a
lot. Most online media sites, especially blogs, don't make money from online advertising but from
selling other things, such as services, or research reports, hosting events, etc. You don't make
money directly from the traffic.
- - -
I already have a loss leader, I just need to add services and products that I can sell to help
support my journalism. That's why I've started to do some consulting for companies such as Intel,
Pearltrees, SAP, and others.
Let me know if you need some help on media/business strategies - 415 336 7547.
The site Tongal, a platform that helps brands crowdsource
content under the framework of contests, launched a promotion this week with the upcoming Rouge
Pictures film MacGruber.
To promote the film, which originated as a Saturday
Night Live sketch series and is due out domestically on May 21, fans are being
encouraged to submit ideas for a
video based on a line from MacGruber; in the second round, people will be able to
submit videos based on one of five selected concepts. (There’s a bit of sweet irony in that
MacGruber itself has worked with brands, as seen during last
year’s Super Bowl.)
With $10,000 in prize money to hand out, Tongal has come up with a multitiered system for winners
to earn at least a little cash — not only will each of the five finalists win some cash,
but those who submit winning concepts receive a 5 percent residual payment on future winnings,
and the most-viewed video will receive a cash bonus as well.
Launched in 2008, Tongal made a big push at SXSW this year for both the MacGruber contest and a
separate, conference-specific contest that asks attendees to submit B-roll video for the
Ultimate SXSW video, including buying the front inside covers for the interactive and film
conference programs as ad space. So far, 36 concepts have been submitted to the
MacGruber contest, and co-founder Mark Burrell believes that number will climb to about
100 when this round ends next Wednesday.
UGC contests at times can feel exploitative — a way for a music label or a brand to solicit
a lot of free ideas without offering them much reward in return. But in this case, where the
money one might win is clearly specified, and the contest itself is framed as a fun way to engage
with the world of the brand, Tongal might be onto something.
Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required):
If there
is one thing that I hate, it is lawn mowing. Perhaps I should get one of those remote control
lawnmowers, like the GOAT. I know that
can’t afford a riding mower, and don’t have that much of a lawn to use it with. What
I wouldn’t give to have this riding scooter.
The Lawn Mower Scooter is designed by Vicky Petihovski, and I believe that it is a way of making
America’s least-liked chore more fun. According to the specs, it has an electric motor that
can drive the blades and scooter.
That means that you can ride the scooter while the blades are doing the work. It can reach up to
6 kilometers per hour, and it can collect the cut grass inside of it. There is even a transparent
window so you can see inside of it, and tell when it is time to be emptied.
Speaking of empty, I don’t really see a place where the engine will sit. I also don’t
see where to put the gas, assuming that it runs on liquid fuel.
If you ask me, this lawnmower scooter looks like it is meant to be a toy, and it reminds me of a
Radio Flyer wagon. However, would you feel comfortable giving a child a lawnmower? I mean, I
would feel comfortable letting a teenager mow the lawn, but seeing Dad playing with the lawnmower
scooter would definitely inspire a child of any age to want to join in the fun.
If you’re of the camp that believes your iPhone or iPod touch’s screen needs some
kind of additional protective layer to prevent it from getting damaged, you may want to head to
the Apple store soonish to stock up on said accessories. In the very near future, you might not
be able to find them, at least not through Apple’s official channels, according to sources
speaking to Macworld.
The sources, who are described as Apple accessory makers who want to remain anonymous for fear of
arousing Cupertino’s ire, maintain that Apple has informed them it will no longer be
carrying any films or covers aimed at protecting iPhone screens from dust or scratches, or even
those that claim to prevent glare and ensure privacy.
If the sources are correct, all of these types of accessories will be pulled from the Apple
Store, both in its online and physical retail incarnations, as will any other accessories that
stick to the surface of Apple devices. The blanket ban on anything adhesive makes sense, since
these apparently have a very high return rate because of the difficulty in applying them
properly.
The ban on films that “protect” the screen also makes a good deal of sense, mostly
because that’s a ludicrous claim to begin with. It’s like being sold insurance
against possible gryphon attack. It’s just not going to do anything, besides maybe instill
a false sense of security. Think about it: do you buy protective films for your eyeglasses?
Because it’s the same exact thing. Or maybe even more ridiculous, depending on the quality
of your glasses. Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch screens are made of optical glass, which is
the most scratch-resistant glass in existence. I personally have owned two iPhones and two iPod
touches, none of which have ever borne any kind of screen protection. I’ve dropped them all
countless times, and even kept them in pockets with change and other knick-knacks, and the
screens are pristine. The back cases? Not so much.
I’m not advising against due diligence here. Generally speaking, I keep my iPhone in a
pocket designated for it alone, or with a pack of gum or something else non-abrasive, though
sometimes I forget and throw it in with my keys. Still, keeping it loose in a bag of sand
probably isn’t a great idea.
But Apple’s doing a great service to customers with this move, even if that what’s
motivated it to begin with. The absence of screen protectors on Apple Store shelves should
hopefully go a long way toward curbing unnecessary accessory purchases. Unless you shop at Best
Buy, in which case you’ll probably come home with three screen protectors and a product
service plan.
We’re still poring over the hundreds of pages of
documents that were just released in the YouTube/Viacom litigation. One document that offers
extensive insight into YouTube’s early operations is Viacom’s Statement of
Undisputed Facts, which contains quite a few emails from the site’s three founders:
Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim (sometimes referred to as YouTube’s
‘forgotten’ founder). For what it’s worth, YouTube dispels the notion that
these were really undisputed; a YouTube spokesperson said “This statement of undisputed
facts is a statement of undisputed fiction.”
One of YouTube’s defenses in this case is that it has virtually no way to tell if a piece
of content has been uploaded with the authorization of its owner. Which is true
— Viacom has even admitted that it requested that YouTube remove
many of the videos that its own personnel had uploaded. Because of the DMCA, YouTube was allowed
to keep this potentially infringing content online provided it responded in a timely manner to
takedown requests.
But these Emails, at least as presented by Viacom, don’t make it sound like YouTube’s
founders and employees were necessarily worried about depriving content owners of videos they may
have rightfully uploaded. Sometimes, it sounds like they’re pretty sure that they
weren’t authorized, and were just relying on the fact that they didn’t have
to do anything until they received a takedown notice. Instead, they were worried about
prematurely cutting off the bulk of their traffic.
There’s some talk of creating the perception that YouTube was concerned with
patrolling such content. In one memorandum, Jawed Karim told YouTube’s Board of Directors
that the 10-minute length restriction the site was imposing would “reinforce the official
line that YouTube is not in the business of hosting full-length television shows”, but that
it “probably won’t cut down the actual amount of illegal content uploaded”
because users could easily split shows in half or upload the “Juiciest bits of television
shows”. Which begs the question, what was the point? Also, note that he refers to it as
“the official line”.
Of course, YouTube says this is all “undisputed fiction”, and they’ll probably
argue that the quotes were taken out of context (and they may well have been). If YouTube did
follow the DMCA to the letter of the law (regardless of their underlying motivation), they may
not have much bearing on the case. Â And there’s also the fact that Viacom is
being hypocritical with all of this, because it too offered user-generated video sites that
relied on the DMCA, and it uploaded many videos to YouTube itself.
But it makes for some very interesting reading.
Here are from some of those early Emails and IM conversations (you can find the full document
here:
On July 4,2005, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley sent an email to YouTube co-founders
Steve Chen and Jawed Karim titled “budlight commercials,” stating “we need to
reject these
too”; Steve Chen responded by asking to “leave these in a bit longer? another week or
two can’t hurt;” Jawed Karim subsequently stated that he “added back all 28 bud
videos. stupid. . .,” and Steve Chen replìed: “okay the video they
upload, first, regardless of people are going to be telling people about the site, therefore
making it viral. they’re going to drive traffic. second, it adds more content to the site.
third, we’re going to be adding advertisements in the future so this gets them
used to it. I’m asking for a couple more weeks.”
In a July 10, 2005 email to YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen,YouTube co-founder
Jawed Karim reported that he had found a “copyright video” and stated:
“Ordinarily I’d say reject it, but I agree with Steve, let’s ease up on our
strict policies for now. So let’s just leave copyrighted stuff there if it’ s news
clips. I still think we should reject some other (C) things tho. . .”; Chad Hurley replied,
“ok man, save your meal money for some lawsuits! no
really, I guess we’ll just see what happens.”
In a July 19, 2005 email to YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, YouTube co founder
Steve Chen wrote: “jawed, please stop putting stolen videos on the site. We’re going
to have a tough time defending the fact that we’re not liable for the copyrighted material
on the site because we the co-founders is didn’t put it up when one of blatantly stealing
content from other sites and trying to get everyone to see it.”
In a July 23, 2005 email to YouTube co- founders Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, YouTube cofounder
Chad Hurley responded to a YouTube link sent by Jawed Karim by saying: “if we reject this,
we need to reject all the other copyrighted ones. . . . should we just develop a flagging system
for a future push?”; Karim responded: “I say we reject this one, but not the other
ones. This one is totally blatant.”
In an August 9, 2005 email to YouTube co-founders Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, YouTube co-founder
Chad Hurley stated: “we need to start being diligent about rejecting
copyrighted/inappropriate content. we are getting serious traffic and attention now, I
don’t want this to be killed by a potentially bad experience of a network exec or someone
visiting us. like there is a cnn clip of the shuttle clip on the site today, if the boys from
Turner would come to the site, they might be pissed? these guys are the ones that will buy us for
big money, so lets make them happy. we can then roll a lot of this work into a flagging system
soon.”
On August 10,2005, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim responded to YouTube co-
founder Chad Hurley (see SUF i1 (previous para)): “lets remove stuff like movies/tv shows.
lets keep short news clips for now. we can become stricter over time, just not overnight. like
the CNN space shuttle clip, I like. we can remove it once we’re bigger and better known,
but for now that clip is fine.” Steve Chen replied, “sounds good.”
In response to YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley’s August 9, 2005 email (see SUF i146) YouTube
co-founder Steve Chen stated: “but we should just keep that stuff on the site. I really
don’t see what wì1 happen. what? someone from cnn sees it? he happens to be
someone with power? he happens to want to take it down right away. he get in touch with cnn
legal. 2 weeks later, we get a cease & desist letter. we take the video down”; Chad
Hurley replied: I just don’t want to create a bad vibe… and perhaps give the users
or the press something bad to write about.”
In a September 1, 2005 email to YouTube co-founder Steve Chen and all YouTube
employees, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim stated, “well, we SHOULD take down any: 1)movies
2) TV shows. we should KEEP: 1)news clips 2) comedy clips (Conan, Leno, etc) 3) music videos. In
the future, I’d also reject these last three but not yet.”
On September 2,2005, in response to an email from YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley reporting that
he had taken down clips of the TV show “Family Guy,” YouTube co-founder Steve Chen
stated: “should we just assume that a user uploading content really owns the content and is
agreeing to all the terms of use? so we don’t take down anything other than obscene
stuff?”
In a September 3,2005 email responding to YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley’s concern
that “the site is starting to get out of control with copyrighted material” (see SUF
i154),
YouTube co-founder Steve Chen stated to the other two YouTube co- founders that,
“what’s
the difference between big-boys/stupidvideos vs youtube? . . . if you look at the top videos
on the site, it’s all from this type of content. in a way, if you remove the potential
copyright infringements, wouldn’t you still say these are ‘personal’ videos? if
you define
‘personal’ to be videos on your personal harddrive that you want to upload and share
with
people? anyway, if site traffic and viralìty will drop to maybe what it is. . .
i’d hate to prematurely 20% of attack a problem and end up just losing growth due to
it.”
In response (see SUF i155), YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim wrote: “well I’d just
remove the obviously copyright infringing stuff. movies and tv shows, I’d get rid of. . .
.leave music videos, news clips, and clips we’ll of comedy shows for now. I think thats a
pretty good policy for now, no?”
In a September 3,2005 email to the two other YouTube co- founders, YouTube co-founder
Steve Chen responded to Jawed Karim’s suggestion that YouTube remove “obviously
copyright infringing stuff’ (see SUF i156) by stating that “i know that if (we remove
all that content. we go from 100,000 views a day down to about 20,000 views or maybe even lower.
the copyright infringement stuff. i mean, we can presumably claim that we don’t know who
owns the rights to that video and by uploading, the user is claiming they own that video.
we’re protected by DMCA for that.we’ll take it down if we get a ‘cease and
desist”‘; Jawed Karim replied: “my suggested polìcy is really lax
though. . . . if we keep that polìcy I don’t think our views will decrease at
alL. “
In a September 7, 2005 email, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen wrote to YouTube cofounders Chad
Hurley and Jawed Karim, and Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital (and later a
YouTube board member) that YouTube had “implemented a flagging system so you can flag a
video as being inappropriate or copyrighted. That way, the perception is that we are concerned
about this type of material and we’re actively monitoring it. The actual removal of this
content will be in varying degrees. We may want to keep some of the borderline content on the
site but just remove it from the browse/search pages. that way, you can’t find the content
easily. Again, similar to Flickr, . . . you can find truckloads of adult and copyrighted content.
It’s just that you can’t stumble upon it, you have to be actively searching for
it.”
In a January 25,2006 instant message exchange, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen
(IM user name tunawarrior) told his colleague YouTube product manager Maryrose Dunton
(IM user name maryrosedunton) that he wanted to “concentrate all of our efforts in
building up (YouTube’sJ numbers as aggressively as we can through whatever tactics, however
evil,” including “user metrics” and “views,” and “then 3
months, sell it with 20m views per day and like 2m users or something. . . I think we can sell
for somewhere between $250m – $500m . . . in the next 3 months. . . and there *is* a
potential to get to $1 b or something.”
In a February 17,2006 instant message conversation, YouTube systems administrator Bradley
Heilbrun (IM user name nurblìeh) asked YouTube product manager Maryrose Dunton (IM
user name maryrosedunton), “was it me, or was the lawyer thing today a cover- your-ass
thing from the company?” Dunton responded, “oh totally. . . did you hear what they
were saying? it was really hardcore . . . if we even see copyrighted material on the site, as
employees we’re supopsed (sic to report it”; Heilbrun replied, “sure,
whatever,” and Dunton said “I guess the fact that I started like 5 groups based on
copyrighted material probably isn’t so great”; in response Heilbrun said “right
exactly. . . but it’s a cover your ass . . . so the board can say we told maryrose not to
do this.”
In the same instant message conversation,YouTube product manager Maryrose Dunton
(IM user name maryrosedunton) reported the results of a “lìttle exercise”
she performed
wherein she “went through all the most viewed/most discussed/top favorites/top rated to try
and figure out what percentage is or has copyrighted materiaL. it was over 70%.” She added,
“what I meant to say is after I found that 70%, I went and flagged it all for
review.” When deposed, YouTube product manager Maryrose Dunton confirmed in reference to
the February 28,2006 instant message exchange with YouTube co-founder Steve Chen (see SUF i195)
that she was being sarcastic and did not actually flag any of the copyrighted videos for review.
Jim Carrey is a fraudster who falls for Ewan McGregor in a Texas jail. Peter Bradshaw enjoys an
intriguing, offbeat comedy
Jim Carrey's rubbery, hyperreal face achieves a sheen of panic and desperate neediness in this
stranger-than-fiction comedy drawn from real life. Steven Russell (Carrey) is a fraudster, a
hypnotically plausible fantasist, and a formerly married ex-cop who comes out as a gay man,
before finally getting sent to jail in Texas for insurance scams, and there finding the love of
his life. This is the shy, young innocent Phillip Morris, nicely played by Ewan McGregor, who,
like the rest of the world, trusts the exuberant and charming Steven implicitly. Morris himself
tells his own story in a seductive, honeyed voiceover, rather like Reese Witherspoon's narration
in Alexander Payne's Election.
Electrified by his new romance, Steven redoubles his fanatical determination to trick and
manipulate the world around him to get what he believes he wants: Phillip. When his own prison
term ends, Steven poses as a lawyer to get Phillip released on licence –
forging documents, faking voices on the phone, and maintaining a series of inspired bluffs
– and then constructs a massive, fraudulent career in both law and finance so
that they can live together in luxury as a super-rich gay couple. But it isn't long before the
police close in, and Steven has to demonstrate his almost superhuman talents for evading the law:
shabby deceptions theoretically consecrated to his love for his beloved Phillip, who hasn't
grasped how he has been made complicit and co-dependent in Steven's delusional career of lies.
This movie, from writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa – who wrote the
Billy Bob Thornton comedy Bad Santa – is intriguing, at least partly because
it is not immediately clear what it is centrally about. Steven's own lifelong identity crisis,
which may stem from the traumatic discovery of having been adopted, has a parallel in the film.
Is it about gay romance? Is it about a con man's criminal career? Are we, the audience, supposed
to trust Steven Russell, to take him at his own estimation of himself?
Not exactly, no. Even calling him a fraudster doesn't describe the character Carrey plays. His
compulsive lying is an addictive habit like kleptomania; it forces him to live in a growing web
of relationships based on bad faith, from which more scams will be needed to escape. Like many
liars, Steven has developed a lovably roguish personality as a cover for when he gets caught and
has to admit guilt, and as a face-saving device to allow his dupes to grimace and pretend they
sort of suspected as much. Steven is not a con man in the sense of a cool, rational grifter who
knows exactly what he is doing and why. He is in the grip of a compulsion, which distracts him
from a batsqueak of terror that he doesn't know what or who he is. Steven seizes messianically on
his gay identity and his gay love for Phillip Morris. The title of the film is a kind of personal
mission statement. But to the very end, this grand passion may not entirely explain his
behaviour.
Steven's soon-to-be-ex-wife Debbie, played by Leslie Mann, asks a doctor if Steven's "gay thing
and the stealing" are part of the same disorder. Steven's then-boyfriend Jimmy, played by Rodrigo
Santoro, is disgusted by this homophobic remark. And yet Debbie, in her blundering way, has come
close to something. It is not Steven's gayness that is of a piece with his stealing, but his
pretending to be straight, and then pretending that his embrace of a gay identity is the solution
to all his personal problems. What counts is the deception, and the way it melts into
self-deception.
With its chequered and meandering story-path, I Love You Phillip Morris reminded me surreally of
serial killer films like David Fincher's Zodiac, Cédric Kahn's Roberto Succo and Shohei
Imamura's Vengeance Is Mine – about criminals whose modus operandi and
repetitive patterns of behaviour look like a rationally pursued criminal "career"
– but it is a career that could digress or disappear at any moment.
Carrey and McGregor certainly succeed in making it all funny. Carrey's anti-hero is, after all, a
very clever man, who gets away with a lot of stuff because of a genuine mental ability, which he
unfortunately supplements with lies. (There's a nice montage sequence in which Steven tells a
"lawyer" joke at the office, and then overhears dozens of people retelling that same joke badly,
revealing their various crass prejudices.)
And there is something funny and touching about this anarchic, abortive love affair, a
chaotically doomed relationship that neither of the principals understand, and it is the very
muddled and messy quality of this relationship that announces that it is drawn from real life.
Steven's bluffs and blags are arguably just a crazily magnified version of the
fake-it-till-you-make-it routine that many entirely honest people find themselves needing to use.
Poor Steven does see himself as basically one of these decent, honest types. "Sometimes you've
got to shave a little off the puzzle-piece to make it fit," he muses. The puzzle fits together
very entertainingly here.
MindTouch has developed a top 20 list of the most
powerful voices in open-source, compiled using Twitter and other sources. It's a good example of
how a research project can be transparent and in the process, help garner thought leadership for
both the individual and the company.
MindTouch Vice President of Sales Mark Fidelman wrote a blog post yesterday, discussing the
project and how they came to their findings.
Sponsor
Our interest is in much the process as the results. This is the kind of approach that has a
number of uses. It answers questions for the organization. It creates a center of intelligence
for the open source community. And it serves as a useful resource for sales and marketing. It
also helps show that real research can be done using a few simple tools.
Most of the people on the list will be of no surprise to veterans of the open-source world.
Notables include Tim O'Reilly, Chris Messina and Jonathan Schwartz.
The results show the degree of amplification than the average active user. This is where you have
to consider the "nuance" factor by defining what it means to be classified in such a manner.
Fidelman explained the process in this way:
"We first set out to determine reach by examining the number of followers and buzz an
individual has on sites like Twitter and Google. We then needed to determine how much impact an
individual had with their followers and subscribers. We asked questions like: How often were they
retweeted? How much buzz is created around their blog posts, tweets, and other messages? How often
is the individual referenced in the blogosphere? Were they cited by influential people?"
They also used Google, Google Blog Search, and Google Trends.
That's a take on the process but what about the larger meaning for MindTouch. Fidelman had this
to say in response to our questions:
Question:How does this project fit into your approach for building a
company? Answer:"We actually view it as building an industry. The Open source industry
has a lot of innovative, influential leaders but until now decision makers haven't had a guide to
know where to tune in.
Question:How is the process of doing the research useful? Answer:It helps mindtouch and the industry learn where to find the open source
broadcasters. If the industry needs to get the word out, these individuals should be targeted
first.
Question: Can you provide 3 tips for people in the enterprise looking to develop
information that positions the company as a thought leader? Answer: It's about building a community around your personal brand. Matt Asay
excels at this. He provides useful, relevant content that's actionable. If I were to characterize
it Into three dimensions:
1. Actively participate in the open source dialogue on Twitter, Google Buzz and niche open
source networks.
2. Build a community around your personal brand by reaching out and networking with other
bloggers, industry analysts and consumers of open source software and hardware.
3 Develop and create useful content on a personal blog or third party blog. The more actionable
and useful the better. This is a big area to cover and I'm probably not doing it justice in two
sentences. He adds...Perhaps a guest post on this topic will help? :-)
Out of the information, Fidelman looked at the larger group and created a
Twitter list. MindTouch, also
did a little inclusive marketing by adding a badge that people can put on their site if they are
on the list.
Thought leadership provides a host of important dimensions. Enterprise companies that approach
the market with intelligence are usually the smartest of the group. Luckily, the tools have never
been easier to use in helping filter out the information that matters most.
In anticipation of the upcoming immigration marches, Media Matters for America has
compiled a review of the hateful and outrageous right-wing rhetoric surrounding the immigration
debate in 2006.
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigrant-rights marchers, immigrants are seeking to
reclaim the Southwest for Mexico
"Reconquista" is a discredited smear used by the right to generate fear of Latino
immigrants. During the 2006 immigration debate, right-wing media repeatedly advanced the
discredited smear that Mexican-Americans and Mexican citizens -- particularly "illegal
aliens" -- are plotting to take over the U.S. Southwest for Mexico.
Dobbs referred to potential "army" of "illegal alien" "invaders" taking over
Southwest. During an April 2006 broadcast of his now-defunct CNN show, Lou Dobbs introduced a
report by stating: "There are some Mexican citizens and some Mexican-Americans who want to see
California, New Mexico and other parts of the Southwestern United States given over to Mexico.
These groups call it the reconquista, Spanish for reconquest. And they view the millions of
Mexican illegal aliens in particular entering the United States as potentially an army of
invaders to achieve that takeover." Correspondent Christine Romans reported, "Long downplayed as
a theory of the radical ethnic fringe, the la reconquista, the reconquest, the reclamation, the
return, it's resonating with some on the streets," and went on to say: "A lot of open borders
groups disavow it completely. But the growing street protests in favor of illegal immigration,
Lou, are increasingly taking on the tone of that very radicalism." [CNN's Lou Dobbs
Tonight,
4/31/06]
CNN reporter referenced "the Vicente Fox Aztlan tour," used "Aztlan" graphic sourced to
hate group.Lou Dobbs Tonight correspondent Casey Wian characterized
then-Mexican President Vicente Fox's trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, as a "Mexican military
incursion" and claimed that "[y]ou could call" Fox's trip to the United States "the Vicente Fox
Aztlan tour." During Wian's report, CNN featured a graphic of "Aztlan" that was sourced to the
Council of Conservative Citizens -- an organization whose "Statement
of Principles" reads: "We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote
non-white races over the European-American people through so-called 'affirmative action' and
similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage
of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races." [Lou Dobbs Tonight,
5/23/06]
Malkin: "[T]he vast majority of mainstream Hispanic politicians" embrace "the
intellectual underpinnings of reconquista." On Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor,
columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin declared that protesters in Los Angeles were "people who
believe that the American southwest belongs to Mexico, that we don't have a right to enforce our
borders, and who do nothing more than try to sabotage our sovereignty." Malkin later added that
"the kind of quote-unquote 'pride' that a lot of these illegal alien activists are touting now
goes much further than just being proud about one's heritage and one's roots. The idea, the
intellectual underpinnings of reconquista, are embraced by the vast majority of mainstream
Hispanic politicians." [Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, 3/30/06]
Wash. Times editorial: Protesters approve of "reconquista" agenda. A
Washington Times editorial accused Latinos who protested against a proposal to restrict
immigration of either supporting or having given "tacit approval" to the "reconquista" agenda of
"Hispanic radicals," which the editorial said was the "reconquering of Mexican land lost during
the Mexican-American war." [The Washington Times, 3/30/06]
Fox's Gibson suspicious that Latino advocacy groups are set on "retaking old Mexico
territories ... by pure birth rate." While saying that he was citing an internal email
from the National Council of La Raza, John Gibson claimed on his
Fox News show that he was suspicious that advocacy groups like the NCLR favor "the so-called
reconquista," which Gibson described as the "retaking of old Mexico territories, which are now
part of the United States, by pure birth rate." Gibson also asserted that the NCLR "is a group
dedicated to the betterment of the race," adding, "good, but try being American while you are at
it, guys." [Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson, 4/3/06]
O'Reilly: Purported immigrant protest "organizers" have hidden "hardcore militant agenda"
to take back American Southwest. On his radio show, O'Reilly said that the "organizers"
of immigrant rallies have a "hardcore militant agenda of 'You stole our land, you bad gringos.' "
O'Reilly said that the "slogan" of the demonstrations' organizers was "[W]e didn't cross the
border, the border crossed us," and that this meant that the organizers believed that Americans
"stole [their] land." The organizers' hidden "agenda underneath," said O'Reilly, was that "now,
we're going to take it back by massive, massive migration into the Southwest." [Westwood One's
The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 5/1/06]
Buchanan: "Chicano chauvinists and Mexican agents" want to "take back through demography
and culture what their ancestors lost through war." In his book, State of Emergency:
The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, published in August 2006, MSNBC
contributor Pat Buchanan wrote: "Chicano chauvinists and Mexican agents have made clear their
intent to take back through demography and culture what their ancestors lost through war." He
also wrote that the United States must keep "Americans of European descent" from becoming the
"minority" in order to "survive[]." [State of Emergency (Thomas Dunne Books)]
Malkin: "[W]e saw ... that supposed fringe" that favors reconquista "come out into the
mainstream." O'Reilly said to Malkin, "So I know that there's an undercurrent of
militancy that says, 'Hey, this is our territory. You stole it from us in the Mexican-American
War. We're going to take it back now by illegal immigration.' But I think that's a fringe, nutty
group, not the mass of millions that we have." Malkin replied: "Well, I guess I disagree with you
there, Bill, because I mean, we saw in April and May of this year [2006] that supposed fringe
come out into the mainstream. And it wasn't just a dozen folks who are ensconced in the ivory
tower who believe that the Southwest is Aztlan and it belongs to them." O'Reilly later asked her:
"You think that this massive immigration to the United States, 15 million strong, is a part of a
plan to bring back territory to Mexico?" Malkin responded: "Well, I take the Mexican government
at its word when it says that is exactly its plan." [The O'Reilly Factor, 8/23/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigrant rights marchers are "racis[t]"
Malkin: "[M]ilitant racism from another protected minority group was on full display"
from "Latino supremacists." In her syndicated column, Malkin wrote of immigration rallies,
"Well, this weekend, militant racism from another protected minority group was on full display.
But you wouldn't know it from press accounts that whitewashed or buried the protesters' virulent
anti-American hatred." Malkin also wrote: "Apologists are quick to argue that Latino supremacists
are just a small fringe faction of the pro-illegal immigration movement (never mind that their
ranks include former and current Hispanic politicians from L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to
former California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cruz Bustamante)." [Creators Syndicate
column,
3/29/06]
Savage: "[B]rown supremacists" are "behind these protests." On his nationally
syndicated radio show, Michael Savage said: "So, it seems to me that there's a certain group of
immigrants that's not very happy and they're all Hispanic. I don't see any other racial group out
there in the streets, do you? Now, that's very interesting. I'm not allowed to raise the issue or
the specter of brown supremacists behind these protests. Don't tell me this is all about
compassion for immigrants, because it is not at all only about compassion for immigrants. They
are trying to provoke the takeover of the United States of America." [Talk Radio Network's
The Savage Nation, 4/11/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Pro-immigration marchers should be arrested or deported
Fox's Asman wondered whether marches are a perfect chance to "round up these lawbreakers
and ship them out." Guest-hosting Fox News' Your World, David Asman discussed
nationwide protests of immigration reform and wondered: "With so many illegals hitting the
streets, is this the perfect time to round up these lawbreakers and ship them out?" As Asman
spoke, the on-screen text read: "Round 'Em Up?" Later, the text read: "Perfect Chance to Arrest
Illegal Immigrants?" [Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, 4/10/06]
Smerconish: "[L]aw enforcement ought to step in" at immigration demonstrations and
consider "gathering ... up" undocumented immigrants. Guest-hosting MSNBC's
Scarborough Country, Philadelphia-based radio host Michael Smerconish suggested that
"maybe law enforcement ought to step in" at pro-immigration demonstrations and consider
"gathering ... up" undocumented immigrants. Smerconish wondered why there was "zero discussion"
of "gathering them up" at the demonstrations, when "[a]ll I keep hearing is how would we ever
find them?" [MSNBC's Scarborough Country, 4/10/06]
Doocy suggested "round[ing] them up right then, when they're saying, 'Hey, I'm right
here.' " On Fox & Friends, syndicated radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller
announced that he was "having a big rally here in Chicago" for a "group" that he said was
"pro-illegal murder and illegal car thieves." Muller added: "We're just getting together, and
we're going to be out on the street. We're for illegal murder and illegal car thievery. So, we
just like illegal stuff." Muller added: "I just like illegal murder and illegal car thieves. So,
you know, it's illegal, but -- and, in fact, all the people who have done it are going to be out
there on the street, and hopefully, none of the cops will come arrest us." Co-host Steve Doocy
then said: "Yeah, you wouldn't want to round them up right then, when they're saying, 'Hey, I'm
right here.' " [Fox News' Fox & Friends, 4/3/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Stoking fears over displays of the Mexican flag
Media figures attacked Mexican-flag wavers, but not those waving Irish, Italian, or
Israeli flags. Following immigration rallies, media figures criticized demonstrators for carrying Mexican
flags, but the same media figures had not complained about people waving other nations' flags,
such as Irish flags at St. Patrick's Day events, Italian flags at Columbus Day events, or Israeli
flags at Israel Day events. Some commentators even dismissed the comparison. For instance,
National Review editor Rich Lowry
called the Mexican-flag waving "more ominous" than the St. Patrick's Day or Columbus Day
displays.
Savage: "[B]urn the Mexican flag!" On his radio show, Savage urged his listeners
to "burn the Mexican flag" in opposition to undocumented immigrants, telling them to "[b]urn a
Mexican flag for America, burn a Mexican flag for those who died that you should have a
nationality and a sovereignty, go out in the street and show you're a man, burn 10 Mexican flags,
if I could recommend it. Put one in the window upside down and tell them to go back where they
came from! And if that's a little to xenophobic for you, ask yourself why the xenophobes from
Mexico wave their flag in your country." [The Savage Nation, 3/27/06]
Fox News: Waving Mexican flag shows "antagonistic edge," waving U.S. flag "just a cover"
and "a ploy to win America's support." Asman cited demonstrators' use of Mexican flags
as evidence of "an antagonistic edge" and suggested that the use of U.S. flags and signs written
in English at pro-immigration demonstrations was "just a cover" by the demonstrators to conceal
their "real intention, which is to keep things as normal among illegal immigrants in the
country." Similarly, Neil Cavuto suggested that the pro-immigration demonstrators' U.S. flags
were "just a prop" and "just a ploy to win America's support." [Your World with Neil
Cavuto, 4/10/06; 4/11/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigration is an "invasion"
Buchanan: Illegal immigration is "an invasion of the United States of America" and "[t]he
whole world is coming." On MSNBC's Hardball, Buchanan claimed that the influx
of undocumented immigrants into the United States is "not immigration" but "an invasion of the
United States of America" that is "coming not only from Mexico," but "from the whole world." He
reiterated: "The whole world is coming." [MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, 5/15/06]
Savage: "This is an invasion by any other name." Savage said, "We, the people,
are being displaced by the people of Mexico. This is an invasion by any other name. Everybody
with a brain understands that. Everybody who understands reality understands we are being pushed
out of our own country." [The Savage Nation, 3/27/06]
Buchanan: "This is an invasion, the greatest invasion in history." In State
of Emergency, Buchanan wrote of immigration: "This is an invasion, the greatest invasion in
history." He also wrote: "We are witnessing how nations perish. We are entered upon the final act
of our civilization. The last scene is the deconstruction of the nations. The penultimate scene,
now well underway, is the invasion unresisted." [State of Emergency]
Right-wing rhetoric: U.S., Mexico are in a state of "war"
Tancredo: [W]e are at war with
Mexico, in a way." On Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, WorldNetDaily.com
columnist Tom Tancredo -- then a Republican congressman from Colorado -- said, "[I]n a way, we
are at war with Mexico, in a way. I'll say it in this way: Mexico is aiding and abetting an
invasion of this country. They are part of the problem. They are doing what they are -- in fact,
they are creating situations along that border using their own military to protect drug
trafficking into the United States, pushing their own people into the United States for a variety
of reasons. It is an invasion. It is an act of aggression." [Fox News' Hannity &
Colmes, 6/26/06, transcript from the Nexis database]
Beck sidekick Gray: "[W]e are in a war with Mexico right now." Pat Gray, who is
now a co-host of Glenn Beck's radio show, appeared on Beck's then-CNN Headline News show and
claimed that "we are in a war with Mexico right now." After Beck agreed that "we better wake up
soon," Gray responded: "[O]r we're going to wake up dead." [CNN Headline News' Glenn
Beck, 9/25/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigrants are fundamentally altering American culture or
way of life
O'Reilly claimed to have exposed the "hidden agenda" behind the immigrant rights
movement: "the browning of America." O'Reilly claimed that during his Fox News show,
guest Charles Barron, a New York City councilman, had revealed the "hidden agenda" behind the
current immigration debate. O'Reilly told his radio listeners: "[T]he bottom line is Charles
Barron said last night is there is a movement in this country to wipe out 'white privilege' and
to have the browning of America." But in the interview, Barron at no point claimed that he and
other advocates for immigrant rights are motivated by a desire to force white Americans into the
minority -- despite O'Reilly's repeated efforts to provoke such an acknowledgment. [The Radio
Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 4/12/06]
Beck: "[I]llegal immigrants are attacking our culture, and our way of life." On
his then-CNN Headline News show, Beck said, "[A]t the very least, illegal immigrants are
attacking our culture, and our way of life. They are not melting into our melting pot -- they're
here for the cash." He later said, "I mean, we've got all these threats coming in from overseas,
but the simplest way is for us to lose the culture of the West is just to do nothing and let
illegal immigrants not melt in and take the culture away from us." [Glenn Beck, 8/24/06]
Buchanan: "They're not welcome to come here and insult the symbols of our country, and
that's what these outsiders have done." On Scarborough Country, Buchanan said
that a Spanish-language version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is "a provocation and an insult"
and that immigrants are "not welcome to come here and insult the symbols of our country, and
that's what these outsiders have done." Buchanan then said that the Spanish recording is "a good
thing in this sense: The American people are awakening to the character of these people."
[Scarborough Country, 5/1/06]
Matthews: Republicans "have a right to fear" a "cultural change" that would result in
their hometowns "becom[ing] overwhelmingly Mexican." On Hardball, Matthews
claimed that House Republicans who had passed a bill that would apparently have criminalized
undocumented immigrants, their employers, and those who provide aid to them "have a right to
fear" a "cultural change" that would result in their home states and towns "becom[ing]
overwhelmingly Mexican." Matthews was responding to a suggestion by guest Amy Goodman, host of
Democracy Now, that "the Republicans who passed the House bill" are "afraid" that the
United States will soon have "a majority Latino population." Matthews later said, "It's not my
point view necessarily," before suggesting that "90 percent of this country" agrees with the
"viewpoint" that "I didn't move to Mexico; Mexico moved to me, and I'm complaining about it."
[Hardball with Chris Matthews, 3/30/06]
O'Reilly: "[Y]ou're on a nice block ... and then the house next to you is turned into an
illegal alien Club Med." On his radio show, O'Reilly said:
You've got the folks who don't have emotion invested in it, other than the farmers down and the
ranchers down on the border are going -- as the lady just called up, [caller] -- say, look, I got
garbage in my -- on my ranch every day. I mean, I'm under siege. They have emotion invested in
it. But those of us up here don't.
Unless you live in a town, like Farmingville, Long Island -- we went over this before
-- where you bought a house, you spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars, you're on a nice
block, your kids are happy, and then the house next to you is turned into an illegal alien Club
Med. And this happens all over the country. [The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly,
3/27/06]
Buchanan: "I think what's coming is the complete balkanization of America." On
Hardball, Buchanan said, "I think what's coming is the complete balkanization of
America, and I'm afraid it's going to be by ethnicity and culture, and language, and every other
way. ... And so, then, it's not like the country you and I grew up in, Chris, whereby we were
monocultural. We were monocultural." [Hardball, 6/5/06]
O'Reilly wondered whether children of Mexican immigrants in U.S. "have any kind of
traditional value system" or are "setting up Acapulco North." On his radio show,
O'Reilly wondered whether children of legal and undocumented immigrants from Mexico who are
attending school in the United States "have any kind of traditional value system at all,
vis-à-vis what America used to be," or whether they are "taking their Mexican values,
because most of them are Mexicans, and, you know, basically setting up Acapulco North." [The
Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 8/15/06]
Buchanan: "You're going to have a giant Kosovo in the Southwest, which de facto is going
to secede." On Scarborough Country, Buchanan said: "[Y]ou cannot absorb 40 to
60 million more people. You're going to have a giant Kosovo in the Southwest, which de facto is
going to secede from this country." [Scarborough Country, 6/5/06]
Buchanan: Immigration will turn U.S. into "a polyglot boarding house for the world, a
tangle of squabbling minorities." On CNN's The Situation Room, Buchanan warned
that "[w]e'll become a polyglot boarding house for the world, a tangle of squabbling minorities."
He continued: "The problem with the immigration, basically -- let's take Mexico -- is these folks
are breaking the law, first. Secondly, they're coming in huge numbers, like no other group
before. Third, they're from a contiguous nation. Fourth, 58 percent of Mexicans believe the
Southwest belongs to them. Fifth, the Mexican government is pushing them in here, and it's got a
political and ideological agenda." [CNN's The Situation Room, 8/28/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigration reform is part of plot to institute "North
American Union"
"North American Union" is an absurd conspiracy theory. Right-wing media,
including Dobbs, have obsessively warned that elements in the U.S. government are secretly
plotting to merge the United States with Mexico and Canada in a "North American Union" similar to
the European Union. During the June 21, 2006, edition of his CNN show, Dobbs stated that "the
Bush administration is pushing ahead with a plan to create a North American union with Canada and
Mexico" and later asked: "Do you think, our question is, maybe somebody should take a vote if
we're going to merge Canada, Mexico and the United States as the leaders of the three countries
are attempting to do with the security and prosperity partnership? Yes or no. Cast your vote at
LouDobbs.com." Dobbs' CNN colleague Suzanne Malveaux later described the North American Union rhetoric as
"conspiracy theor[y]." [Lou Dobbs Tonight,
6/21/06]
Corsi: "North American Union ... was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration's
true open borders policy." Jerome Corsi, co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat
Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, wrote in a column that "President Bush is pursuing a
globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with both
Mexico and Canada. This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration's true open borders
policy. Secretly, the Bush administration is pursuing a policy to expand NAFTA politically,
setting the stage for a North American Union designed to encompass the U.S., Canada, and Mexico."
[HumanEvents.com, 5/19/06]
WND's Farah linked Bush guest-worker proposal to plan by "one-worlders" to merge U.S.,
Mexico, Canada. Appearing on a radio show, WorldNetDaily founder and editor Joseph Farah
claimed that the "one-worlders" of the Council on Foreign Relations have a plan to merge the
United States, Mexico, and Canada by 2010 and suggested that Bush's proposed guest-worker program
is part of this plan. Farah said, "Sometimes, the conspiracies are right." [American Family
Radio's Today's Issues, 4/4/06]
Buchanan: Vicente Fox's "ultimate goal" is making Mexico and U.S. "basically part of the
North American Union." On Lou Dobbs
Tonight, Buchanan said, "The government of Mexico is pushing its poor and unemployed into
the United States to ease social pressure on itself. Secondly, they get $16 billion in
remittances back to Mexico. Third, it is awoken to the idea that it can reannex the American
southwest, which it used to hold, linguistically, culturally, ethnically and socially, not
militarily by pushing all these people in there and creating a gigantic fifth column in America."
Buchanan added: "The ultimate goal of Vicente Fox is the erasure of the border between the United
States and Mexico. He has said as much and to make the two basically part of the North American
Union in which Mexico will get ... a constant flow of cash from the wealthy USA and La
Reconquista is the objective." [Lou Dobbs Tonight, 9/5/06, Nexis transcript]
With nine months passed since its last issue, FORT90ZINE, the print rag from GameSetWatch NYC
correspondent and Heavy.com blogger Matthew "Fort90"
Hawkins, is making its return next month with a new issue and this capital cover from Mariel
"Kinuko" Cartwright. It has Servbots, Solid Snake, and a reverse-handed Momohime; what's not to
love?
Inside, the #3 issue includes a foreword by Life Meter's Dave Roman, a pin-up by Hilary Florido,
and video game-related text from Hawkins and Brian Liloia. I've also contributed a little article
for this release, so I guess you can take that either as an incentive or a warning if you're
still undecided on whether to purchase the magazine.
Attract Mode, which offers a handsome collection of game zines like Raina Lee's
1-Up MegaZine and Mathew Kumar's exp.,
will sell the issue beginning next month. And while we're talking about Attract Mode, the video
game culture shop will be at PAX East next weekend, selling its wares alongside 2 Player
Productions in a shared booth.
Brian McGacken of Farmingdale, New Jersey was sentenced to ten years in prison because police
discovered he was growing marijuana while on a call to investigate loud sex. Daniel Tencer of
AlterNet writes: Appealing the conviction, McGacken argued that, once police knew the noise was
consensual sex, they no longer had reason to search his home. But the appellate panel at the
Superior Court of New Jersey disagreed. On Monday, they dismissed McGacken's appeal, stating that
"the potential for harm was too severe for the police to accept an explanation for loud screaming
that could have been a cover-up of its true source." The ruling stated in part: The
police are not required to accept the explanation that a person answering the door gives for a
distress call. While loud sex may have been a plausible source of screaming, that explanation was
not so reliable that the police acted unreasonably in investigating further.... Moreover, by first
questioning defendant and his girlfriend, the troopers discounted the possibility that someone may
have made a false report of screaming. Defendant did not deny that screaming had occurred in his
residence. His admission made it unnecessary for the police to seek corroboration to establish the
reliability of the anonymous 911 call. AlterNet: Loud Sex Enough for Cops to Search Your Home,
Court Rules (Thanks, Sean!)...
Here’s Saturday Night Live alumni and 30 Rock mastermind
Tina Fey scorching up the pages of the April issue of Esquire
magazine. At least I think she looks hot. I mean, she obviously does, especially on the cover,
but you know, it’s Tina Fey. She’s nowhere near the vicinity of Megan Fox hotness,
or even Salma Hayek territory if we’re talking about older celebs, which they
both are (Salma’s 43, Tina’s 39), but I definitely wouldn’t kick her out of
bed. Although I’d probably regret it the following morning, because that would mean
I’d be cheating on Megan Fox with her. Having said that, I’m sure I would have more
fun just hanging out with Tina.
I don’t know, I’m so confused. Let’s just forget about my possible future and
leave it at Tina Fey looks pretty darn hot, ok? Good. Enjoy the pics, and make sure to check out
Esquire’s website for more Tina Fey photos.
Charlie Angus proposes amendments to the Copyright Act that “will ensure that artists are
getting paid for their work, and that consumers aren’t criminalized for moving their
legally-obtained music from one format to another.”
The so-called “iPod tax” is resurfacing in Canada with news that New Democratic Party
MP Charlie Angus has introduced a a pair of proposals to amend the country’s Copyright Act.
One would extend the Private Copying Levy, first established back in 1997, to portable media
players like iPods. Specifically, C-499 says the tax will cover any
“device that contains a permanently embedded data storage medium, including solid state or
hard disk, designed, manufactured and advertised for the purpose of copying sound recordings,
excluding any prescribed kind of recording device.”
This would finally give consumers some much needed control over legally purchased products while
simultaneously opening up a new revenue stream for artists in the downloading age.
“Artists have a right to get paid and consumers have a right to access works,” he
says in a press release.
“This is what balanced copyright is all about. The government has declared their intention
to update the Copyright Act. If they are serious then we need to update key elements of the act
like the copying levy and fair dealing.”
The other is a “fair dealing” motion (M-506) that would allow reasonable use of
copyrighted materials for innovation, research and study.
29. Fair dealing of a copyrighted work for purposes such as research, private study, criticism,
news reporting or review, is not an infringement of copyright.
Angus said that after years of talk, it’s time parliamentarians got serious about updating
our copyright laws.
“Digital locks and suing fans are not going to prevent people from copying music from one
format to another,” he said. “The levy is a solution that works. By updating it, we
will ensure that artists are getting paid for their work, and that consumers aren’t
criminalized for moving their legally-obtained music from one format to another.”
However, the renowned Canadian academic and law professor Michael Geist, though
“supportive” of the fair dealing proposal, finds the iPod tax troubling. Why? Because
the device definition is vague enough that it could also cover smartphones and PCs.
“While the CPCC (the private copying collective) may not target all of these devices, there
is nothing in the bill that prevents them from doing so,” he says.
Geist also worries that since video recordings are not included it could mean the introduction of
a new tax at a later date, pushing it perhaps to upwards of $100 or more.
Most important of all, though a noble experiment it is, the iPod tax would only cause consumers
to purchase iPods and other devices covered by the tax outside of Canada where it didn’t
apply. As for how much it would be one can only guess, but the last time
around was in the $75 range.
The Canada’s Private Copyright Collective (CPCC) has been pushing
for a similar levy as far back as 2007, but those efforts were defeated early last year by
the country’s Federal Court of Appeals.
Connecticut attorney general candidates pledge
to join federal lawsuit challenging DOMA: "Boston College Law School student Paul Sousa
started the "Defend the Law" campaign last summer to urge Blumenthal to join Massachusetts
Attorney General Martha Coakley’s federal lawsuit challenging DOMA. Since Blumenthal has
announced his bid for U.S. Senate, Sousa is moving on to the AG’s hopeful successors."
SF
Milk awards cancelled: "The big gala
that was planned for May 21 seemed to have lots of different issues. The general feeling from
folks ... was there wasn't enough time to do one in the way it should be done," said Stuart Milk.
"So it looks like we are going to shoot for something larger next year."
UK
muggers lure teen from gay internet
chat room: "The victim agreed to meet a man he had spoken to on line to in the park in
Burbage on Sunday evening but when he arrived he was confronted by a gang of four robbers who
told him to hand over his money, and then attacked him. They ran off empty-handed and the victim
sought help from a nearby house. Police said the 50-year-old man, who had head and facial
injuries, later discovered his car, a red Ford Escort, had been vandalised."
Butterflies emerging earlier
due to climate change: "For the first time, a causal link has been established between
climate change and the timing of a natural event – the emergence of the common
brown butterfly."
Une démonstration digitale impressionnante par Alexx
Henry pour cette version très spéciale du magazine VIVmag. Une exploitation au
maximum des capacités de l’iPad afin de présenter ce magazine web rempli
d’animations 3D, d’interactivité et de graphisme. Vidéo dans la suite.
Mammals, birds and fish living in the High Arctic experienced an average 26 percent drop in their
populations between 1970 and 2004 due to the loss of sea ice, according to a new report from The
Arctic Species Trend Index, "Tracking Trends in Arctic Wildlife ."
The 2010 report, commissioned and coordinated by the Whitehorse, Yukon–based Circumpolar
Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), was presented Wednesday at the State of the Arctic
Conference in Miami. It covers 965 populations of 365 species, representing 35 percent of all
known vertebrate species found in the Arctic.
A certain someone was talking to me about how they find it interesting that node.js, the
JavaScript server framework du jour which loves all things async, starts life with a bunch of
synchronous require() calls. Now, this is actually quite fine since the startup of the server is
not the issue at hand.
However, if you are running require()-esque loader code in the browser you want to avoid blocking
calls else Steve Souders will come over and beat you up.
I have seen a couple of interesting items in this area:
RequireJS
James Burke of Mozilla Messaging has spent a lot of time in the depths of dojo.require(). He has
taken another look at the problem and RequireJS a solution
that offers:
some sort of #include/import/require
ability to load nested dependencies
ease of use for developer but then backed by an optimization tool that helps deployment
He walks through the problem and why other
solutions like LABjs, CommonJS require, and Dojo itself don't cover all of his bases.
// code that runs asynchronously when the library is loaded
require(["some/script.js"], function() {
//This function is called after some/script.js has loaded.
});
// defining the module and dependencies
require.def(
// The name of this module
"types/Manager",
// The array of dependencies
["types/Employee"],
// The function to execute when all dependencies have loaded. The
arguments
// to this function are the array of dependencies mentioned above.
function (Employee) {
function Manager () {
this.reports = [];
}
// This will now work
Manager.prototype = new Employee();
// return the Manager constructor function so it can
be used by other modules.
return Manager;
}
);
Google Analytics "async add to []" Pattern
When talking to Davis Frank of Pivotal about some Google Analytics code, he pointed me to
details about the new GA asynchronous loader that we very excitedly blogged about
since GA was such a blocking offender on the Web.
Part of the asynchronous API is that you, the developer create an array, and use the push()
method to put commands on a queue. This means that you can start pushing commands immediately.
Then, when the GA code loads asynchronously, it takes over that array and wraps those standard
methods. Now it can take the commands and fire them back to GA and push() can do more. Freaking
brilliant.
In case you hadn't noticed, Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island PC adventure series is being put on
disc this spring.
The box, available to pre-order from the Telltale Shop right now, costs $34.95 (£22.90) and
offers the full five-game series on both PC and Mac. Plus, extras: design team commentary videos,
official trailers, cliff-hanger videos, wallpapers and a sneak peak at new series Sam & Max:
The Devil's Playhouse.
There's a Deluxe Edition, too. In here are collectible replicas of in-game items as well as all
the guff from the standard box. There's a Voodoo card, Piratey Piece of Eight, coaster from Club
41, souvenir button from the Trial of the Century and a fancy slipcase cover for the DVD drawn by
Steve Purcell.
As public outrage over ACTA mounts, there have been a series of official responses to questions
posed by legislators or raised through access to information requests. In addition to
yesterday's statement from
International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan's office confirming Canada's support of release of the
ACTA text, recent documents or statements include:
David Lammy, United Kingdom Minister for Intellectual Property, has confirmed
his support for ACTA transparency: “The UK has long been in favour of greater transparency
in the ACTA negotiations, so I am very pleased that EU has now agreed that the draft ACTA text
should be placed in the public domain as soon as possible. This would allow much more open and
informed engagement with citizens, society, and parliaments.”
Several NZ
documents have been released under Access to Information. They include documents
outlining which organizations have been consulted and disclose that the New Zealand government
was initially interested in using ACTA to cover traditional knowledge such as Maori culture.
A European
Commission response to MEP Alexander Alvaro's questions on ACTA that focuses on cross-border
copyright enforcement.
A
lengthy letter from the Dutch Ministers of Economic Affairs and of Justice to the Dutch
Parliament on ACTA, addressing transparency and the legal competence of the EU and its Member
States to enter into the agreement.
In my previous blog on icons I have very specifically noted that icons were written, not painted.
This is a distinction that has significant meaning to those who discover that icons are a
“window” for prayer, meditation and worship. I count myself among such Christians
now. I have several carefully chosen classical icons in my place of prayer and private worship. I
have the most famous of all icons, Christopantocrator. I also have an icon of the blessed Trinity and one of Saint Benedict, a role
model Christian to me. These icons help me to pray and provide for me windows into the hopes I
have for my own life. I also have an icon of the Apostle Paul. The icon I most treasure, since my
dear friend Father Wilbur Ellsworth gave it to me on my 60th birthday, is an icon of the Apostle
John, after whom I was named by my parents. When I enter my worship chapel (an enclosed and
heated gazebo that can be used 24/7) I am surrounded by these great written works alongside of my
Bible(s) and prayer books. I have made it my goal to learn how to use these icons day-to-day so
that I can live my ancient faith in the present moment.
I do not know if you have ever looked at an icon carefully, that you really looked at it intently
and for some time. If you have you may at first have found the experience rather unsettling. I
did, and sometimes still do, find them unsettling. Frederica Mathewes-Green , in her helpful new
book TheOpen Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer
(Paraclete Press) urges readers to look at the Pantocrator icon from St. Catherine’s
Monastery in Sinai, Egypt. This is the oldest known icon of Christ. She urges readers to use
paper to cover the picture so you can only see one eye at a time. Then switch the paper and look
at the other eye while you cover the one you first looked at. You will readily see that the right
eye presents a penetrating stare, a stare Mathewes-Green says will make you wonder if this person
knows more about you than you care for them to know. Now when you cover the right eye and look at
the left eye of the icon you will see something different. On this side Christ’s face is
peaceful and serene. Christ beckons you to come to him, to embrace him and love him. I actually
did what Mathewes-Green suggested and she is right. The great truth of Christ’s person
pours through this amazing window into your soul.
The writer of this famous icon was clearly trying to show two great truths. First, he wanted to
show that Christ knows our sinfulness and everything there is to know about us. This is what
Mathewes-Green calls a “surgical aspect.” But the iconographer clearly wants us to
also observe the patient, listening side of Christ as well.
Let me develop this within the context of my own evangelical Protestant background. Through words
I learn great truths about Christ. But words cannot move me to holy imagination as powerfully as
an icon does. This icon is so beloved in church history precisely because it is so complete, so
rich. No modern portrait art, seeking to imagine in the artist’s conception of things, can
so powerfully reveal the Christ of orthodox theology as this icon. I agree with Mathewes-Green
when she says, “People who get acclimated to icons begin to see classic Western religious
paintings as accomplished and beautiful, but noisy.” That is my own experience too.
This really explains the power of the icon for me. I love art, all kinds of art. My one exception
might be some forms of modern art that are radically existential and seem to have little or no
meaning except what I give to it. But a truly faithful icon is not art in this sense at all. It
is a “window” through which the worshiper can see and understand the mystery of the
faith. I now understand why my Orthodox friends value icons so profoundly.
Just as Davenport Lyons lawyers are being sent for disciplinary action over the
firm's practice of sending large numbers of "pay up or we sue" pre-settlement letters, ACS:Law, the
shady firm that effectively spun out of Davenport Lyons to do
the same thing is ramping up its efforts. This isn't a huge surprise. Late last year, the firm said
it was preparing to send
out 30,000 letters, despite numerous studies showing that these letters regularly target innocent people, but scare many
people into just paying to avoid a lawsuit.
The practice is being condemned widely. UK politicians have called it a scam. Even (believe it or not) the record labels are criticizing the practice, saying
that it's not productive (most of the firms that use ACS:Law/Davenport Lyons/DigiProtect tend to be
porn studios and small software providers). The latest is that O2, the UK ISP is condemning these letters as
being pure bullying for money.
What's amusing is how ACS:Law tries to defend itself: "Neither we nor our clients threaten or
bully anyone. We send out letters of claim to account holders of internet connections where those
internet connections have been identified as being utilised for illegal file-sharing of our
clients' copyrighted works.... Our letter makes an enquiry in that regard and invites the recipient
of our letter to respond to this evidence. In addition they are invited to enter into a compromise
to avoid litigation," This is disingenuous in almost every possible way. Sending a legal
letter saying that you've been caught breaking the law, and likely will be taken to court (even
though ACS:Law almost never seems to actually follow through on that threat), is absolutely a
threat. And notice how he calls it "an enquiry," which is again misleading. It's an accusation, and
a typical shakedown offer. It's not a "compromise," and it's not an afterthought as presented in
the quote above. It's the key point of the letter, and the entirety of the business model put forth by the
companies involved, who describe it as a way to "profit" from people sharing their content.
In responding to the fact that even the record labels (via BPI) have condemned these letters, the
guy from ACS:Law responds with more ridiculousness: "I think the BPI is letting its members
down. I think they are scared of alienating their customers. My clients don't have the same fear.
They take the view that the people they target aren't their customers because they are stealing
from them." Of course, if they were "stealing" from his clients, then it's a criminal, not a
civil, matter, and as he must know, the proper response is to go to the police. Not demand they pay
up via some sort of shakedown letter.
Finally, the guy from ACS:Law basically admits that he's the one getting rich off of this, noting
that he gets more money from this than the copyright holders: "After my expenses the
copyright owner is the largest single beneficiary." Nice little trick there with the "after my
expenses." This is a classic shakedown with a weak attempt at giving it legitimacy by using
copyright law as a cover.
We had a week of record rain here in Eastern Massachusetts. Lots of roads were closed as ponds
and brooks overflowed their banks, and drainage systems backed up. At various places on Mass Ave
north of Cambridge water was gushing up out of blown-off manhole covers. Traffic was backed up
all over the place. Yesterday, the first after the rains stopped, many residents were pumping out
basements through fat hoses that snaked out into streets. Much of this water only pooled
somewhere else, since many drainage systems were filled too.
In some ways I’ve never stopped being the newspaper photographer I was forty years ago, in
my first newspaper job (I didn’t have that many, total, but that was more fun than the rest
of them). So I went out and looked for some actual floods worth shooting and found Magnolia Field
in Arlington, near the Alewife T stop at the end of the Red Line. It’s a big soccer and
lacrosse field, with with the Minuteman Bikeway at one end and a playground for kiddies at the
other. It normally looks flat, but inundation by water proved otherwise. I could tell by the high
debris mark that most of the field had been covered with water when the flood was at its maximum
depth, but there was plenty left when I showed up and shot the photo above and the rest here.
I took that screen shot at the end of the storm on Monday night. You can see how it was our
corner of a huge cyclonic weather system, rotating around an eye of sorts, out in the Atlantic
off the Virginia coast. This winter we’ve had a series of these. As I wrote in an earlier post, it
was one of these, spinning like a disk with a spindle in New York City, that brought rain to New
England and snow pretty much everywhere else in February.
Now it’s Spring, almost literally. The sky was blue and clear as can be, winds calm,
temperature hitting 66°. I know it won’t last, but it’s nice to get a
break.
The Internet is huge but it's a hodgepodge of hundreds of thousands of smaller, private networks,
connected through thousands of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and dozens of backbones operated
by the large Telcos and service providers.
Moving data from one end of the Internet to the other can mean traveling across many different
computers and different networks. Some of these computers and networks are old and inefficient
while some are modern and very efficient.
They are all tied together into what we call the Internet, through a collection of standards.
These standards determine how a packet of data can reach its destination, complete and undamaged.
Many large Internet companies own large chunks of the Internet through building their own data
centers, networks, backbones, etc. This helps to keep their costs down.
Google is big...
Google is one of those companies that owns a large chunk of the Internet. It has more than 50
data centers around the world; it builds its own servers; it operates its own backbones that
shuttle huge amounts of data across the world; it develops its own software for managing all of
its data; it keeps banks of servers in the data centers of ISPs so that it can cache data closer
to delivery; and more, much more.
How big is Google? asks
Arbor Networks. It's a rhetorical question because Arbor knows, it sells network control and
monitoring hardware used by the largest ISPs and corporations.
Arbor says that Google is very big:
I mean really big. If Google were an ISP, it would be the fastest growing and third largest
global carrier. Only two other providers (both of whom carry significant volumes of Google
transit) contribute more inter-domain traffic. But unlike most global carriers (i.e. the
“tier1s”), Google’s backbone does not deliver traffic on behalf of millions of
subscribers nor thousands of regional networks and large enterprises. Google’s
infrastructure supports, well, only Google.
Based on data from 110 ISPs collected in the summer of 2009, Google was responsible for
as much as 10% of all Internet traffic.
If a company wants to compete with Google on a large scale, the costs of shuttling data packets
around, whether they be Twitter packets or video packets, starts becoming very important at these
large scales.
Arbor says:
The competition between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other large content players has long since
moved beyond just who has the better videos or search. The competition for Internet dominance is
now as much about infrastructure — raw data center computing power and about
how efficiently (i.e. quickly and cheaply) you can deliver content to the consumer.
And that's why Google has focused on building the most efficient, lowest cost to operate, private
Internet. This infrastructure is key to Google, and it's key to understanding Google.
The cost of aluminum...
Google will locate its massive data centers where electricity costs are low, such as where there
is hydro-electric power. There's a shortcut to finding these locations, look for places where
there are aluminum smelters -- these use huge amounts of electricity.
[Back in 2005 I was tipped off by a source that Google was looking at places for new data
centers, related to aluminum smelters. But I was unable to write about it directly. I put the
scoop in the form of a cryptic sentence and called it a "Crypto-Scoop."
GOOG is prophetic, rather than superstitious,
about its interest in places of power,
associated with the 13th building block of the Original Design.
(Aluminum is the 13th element in the periodic table - a fundamental building block of the
Universe.) I have no idea if anyone worked it out :)]
Power and computing costs...
Google knew back then that electric power costs would be important in determining the cost of
data centers. Today, it is high on the list of priorities for all data centers. That's also why
it has been investing in power
generating technologies, such as wind, sun, and geothermal.
It has a key goal of generating electric power from renewable energy sources at a cost less
than coal-generated electric power. That would be an incredible achievement.
Always lower costs...
Google always focuses on finding the lowest costs even though it can easily afford to pay more.
Google builds its own servers, made from off-the-shelf low cost components, with cheap hard
drives. It has developed its own software that deals with component failure and moves work loads
across huge numbers of servers. Managing failure is built into Google's data center operating
systems.
It has bought
up lots of "dark fiber," at a very low cost. This is optical fiber that hasn't yet been 'lit' but
it is in the ground, in place, ready to be hooked up.
Because Google has so much fiber, it operates one of the largest backbones in the world. It also
means that it can trade
bandwidth with others.
Large Telcos and ISPs have peering arrangements with each other. This means that if they have the
capacity, they will carry extra traffic for each other. These peering arrangements mean that
Google's bandwidth bill for all that YouTube video is zero.
It's difficult to believe, but your bandwidth bill to watch a YouTube video is more than
Google's. Because of bartering through peering agreements, its only cost is in maintaining its
own networks and backbones.
Skipping the last mile...
Google still needs ISPs and Telcos for the last mile, to deliver its various services and
products, to the end user/consumer. But it has been experimenting with going direct.
It has experimented with free municipal Wi-Fi, and more recently, it is setting up high
speed bandwidth to communities with 500,000 people or less.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Google wants to become an ISP or a Telco. It is not a service
organization and it doesn't want that headache, but it does want to spur ISPs and Telcos to
develop high-speed data connections, so that it can deliver future products and services that
require high speed data.
The Internet is becoming ever more Google's...
Googles growth means that it is building a much faster, and much more power efficient, and much
greener Internet. And through peering agreements, it is carrying much more than just Google
traffic, it is quickly, and quietly becoming an important carrier for all Internet
traffic.
There are huge indirect benefits from Google's work that make the Internet a better service for
every Internet user.
Essential facility...
What will this lead to? It's going to lead to regulatory scrutiny because Google will be
increasingly seen as an 'essential facility' vital for the economies of regions, nations, and
entire trading blocs.
Increased scrutiny by governments, and regulatory bodies, will make it more difficult for Google
to execute on its business strategies. Combined with the increased scrutiny of Google's
acquisitions by the Federal Trade Commission, Google's future ambitions will become ever more
restricted.
Google might decide that its value lies in its incredibly efficient infrastructure, which is far
more efficient and lower cost than the Internet as a whole.
Once you have the lowest cost infrastructure, you can layer and scale other business services on
top. Such as payment systems, basic voice and data services, security systems, and commerce
platforms (advertising).
Google might decide it doesn't need to own a Facebook, Twitter a Yahoo, or an Amazon -- when it
can host all the data packets. It can carry and trace a data packet from source to destination
and back again -- it can mine all that transactional data. That's extremely valuable.
That transactional data is incredibly valuable, and even though we can't unlock it to its fullest
value today, Google is working on it.
No umbrella...
By being able to build the most efficient, private Internet, Google makes it extremely difficult
for any competitor to challenge it. There is no 'price umbrella' that competitors can use.
For example, there used to be lots of mainframe computer companies because IBM, the largest
mainframe computer maker, used to charge very high prices. There was a substantial price umbrella
set by IBM that sheltered competitors, and allowed them to sell IBM compatible mainframes and
still make a good living.
You can see similar price umbrellas in other business sectors.
Google has made sure that by building the most efficient, lowest cost infrastructure, there is no
price umbrella that could be exploited by competitors. It's more like a manhole cover, try to get
under it, and you fall into a hole...
This strategy means that Google leaves money on the table, it could make more money over the
short-term by creating a price umbrella. Instead, it has chosen a long term business strategy
which doesn't give competitors any toehold, let alone an umbrella.
Its stock ownership is set up so that founder's stock has ten times the voting rights of public
shares, this allows it to avoid shareholder pressure to pursue short-term business goals.
This all adds up to make Google into a truly formidable force, and one that continually amasses
greater powers and influence. 'Do no evil' is the very least it can do.
First came Wired’s
official iPad demo, and now there’s a new inspirational vision of the future of digital
magazines, courtesy of the following video.
Alexx Henry Photography collaborated with co-directors Cory Strassburger and Ming Hsiung to
produce the following cover and feature spread interactive animation for all-digital magazine
Viv Mag.
The concept is to envision the interactive publishing potential allowed by the iPad and other
tablets coming onto the market in the near, near future. You can check out a
behind-the-scenes look at how the video was put together in the second clip below.
Let us know what you think: Are tablets the ultimate savior of print publishing? Would you be
interested in checking out a digital magazine like the one depicted in the video?
Alan Pope, Dave Walker, Tony Whitmore and fluffy Tux & Firefox present episode three of
season three of the Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo Team.
Subscribe:-
Hi-Fi Lo-Fi Ogg Mp3
In this week’s show:-
What we’ve been doing this week including piloting a canal boat whilst under the
influence of wifi, configuring an Ortek remote control and playing with MythTV.
July 19th – 24th – Europython, Birmingham, UK. europython.eu
Command line love. In Ciemon’s absence Josh
Holland contributed the following:-
Bash stores your most recent commands as a command history. Most people are aware of
being able to press the up and down arrow keys and Ctrl-R to scan through this history,
but there are a couple of other ways to use it too.
You can type !cp and bash will repeat the last command that started with cp. As a special
case, you can use !! to repeat the last command and !-n to go back n lines. You can also
use ^string1^string2^ to repeat the last command with string1 replaced by string2.
The Ecosphere Bit about Ubuntu has discussion of..
And finally we cover your emails, tweets and dents and voicemail since our last show
Comments and suggestions are welcomed to: podcast@ubuntu-uk.org
Join us on IRC in #ubuntu-uk-podcast on Freenode
Leave a voicemail via phone on +44 (0) 203 298 1600, sip: podcast@sip.ubuntu-uk.org or skype:
ubuntuukpodcast
Follow our twitter feed http://twitter.com/uupc
Follow us on Identi.ca http://identi.ca/uupc
Find our Facebook Fan
Page
Discuss this episode in the Forums
Alan Pope, Dave Walker, Tony Whitmore and fluffy Tux Firefox present episode three of season
three of the Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo Team. Subscribe:- Hi-Fi Lo-Fi Ogg Mp3 In this week's
show:- What we've been doing this week including piloting a canal boat whilst under the influence
of wifi, configuring an Ortek remote control and playing with MythTV. We review and discuss the
Cool-er ebook reader. We interview Ivanka Majic about her role as Design Team Lead, her team at
Canonical, Z80 assembler, and something about buttons. In the News this week:- Magnatune pays
Rhythmbox (and Canonical) Amazon pays Microsoft (for Linux [allegedly]) get_iplayer dropped by
author Novell to be asset-stripped Streetview covering 95% of UK We announce some upcoming events:-
June 11th, 12th 13th - South East Linux Fest 1st - 2nd May, Liverpool, UK - OggCamp 10 sponsored by
Linux Format (Media Partner), The Open Learning Centre, The Linux Emporium, Viglen, Bitfolk and
OpsView, July 19th - 24th - Europython, Birmingham, UK. europython.eu Command line love. In
Ciemon's absence Josh Holland contributed the following:- Bash stores your most recent commands as
a command history. Most people are aware of being able to press the up and down arrow keys and
Ctrl-R to scan through this history, but there are a couple of other ways to use it too. You can
type !cp and bash will repeat the last command that started with cp. As a special case, you can use
!! to repeat the last command and !-n to go back n lines. You can also use ^string1^string2^ to
repeat the last command with string1 replaced by string2. The Ecosphere Bit about Ubuntu has
discussion of.. Jane Silber discusses Ubuntu with The Register Dave details how to change button
location in Lucid A detailed analysis of the new Lucid theme Webcam software for Linux Phoronix
compares desktop footprints And finally we cover your emails, tweets and dents and voicemail since
our last show Comments and suggestions are welcomed to: podcast@ubuntu-uk.org Join us on IRC in
#ubuntu-uk-podcast on Freenode Leave a voicemail via phone on +44 (0) 203 298 1600, sip:
podcast@sip.ubuntu-uk.org or skype: ubuntuukpodcast Follow our twitter feed http://twitter.com/uupc
Follow us on Identi.ca http://identi.ca/uupc Find our Facebook Fan Page Discuss this episode in the
Forums
The CE Linux Forum (CELF) is once again sponsoring a free technical demonstration room for embedded
open source projects at this year's Embedded Linux Conference (ELC) on Apr. 13 in San Francisco.
Demonstrations should cover embedded technology that offers software available under GPL or LGPL
compatible licenses, says CELF....
Research and
Development at General Motors, in cooperation with several universities, is developing a way of
using augmented reality in automobiles.
This isn’t the same type of augmented reality used in scavenger
hunts, but it is able to gather data from vehicle sensors and cameras to project images
generated by compact ultraviolet lasers right on the surface of the windshield itself.
Here is a link to a video where you can see a developer talking about the technology, also known as
enhanced vision system. You will see an instance of when the lasers paint the edge of the road on
the windshield in foggy weather. This is so the driver knows where the edge is and can avoid it,
which is very difficult to see when visibility is low.
You may also have noticed how it can circle the speed limit sign as the car drives by. Some of
you might have a GPS that reminds you have that, but I suppose the visual reminder helps as well.
In fact, this system helps to locate other obstacles on the road too.
Well, it would appear that this is still concept technology, and it’s pretty crude. I mean,
it would be cooler if there was a more defined line outlining the road, but this feels more like
something at a laser show.
A website that sorts everyday the most relevant information to you.
Vote for the news and Matoumba will learn your tastes and the information that you like the most.
It is all FREE!
Find here the history of the stories you found interesting.
Show this to people who share the same interests as you,
and if they use Matoumba, their own votes will fine recommandations to you.
If there
is one thing that I hate, it is lawn mowing. Perhaps I should get one of those remote control
lawnmowers, like 
We’re still poring over the hundreds of pages of 
no
really, I guess we’ll just see what happens.”
We’ve
witnessed publishers drooling over the 
Research and
Development at General Motors, in cooperation with several universities, is developing a way of
using augmented reality in automobiles.
Recommandations
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
