Posts from — August 2003

Discover: Built-In Spam. Steven Johnson. Software designers are quietly integrating commercial transactions into ordinary applications. Before too long your spreadsheet may start selling you stock tips, and for the low, low price of $1.50, your word processor might offer to clean up that last paragraph you wrote. [Tomalak's Realm]

Gack, one more reason for open source software.

Tyranny of structurelessness. 'The Tyranny of Structurelessness' by Jo Freeman should be compulsory reading for any libertarians, funky-businessmen, self-organisation enthusiasts, hippies, entrepreneurial gurus,… [iWire]

New politics.

Two articles from the Washington Post today, Haliburton making nearly $2 billion from war in Iraq and Bush holds Federal employee pay raise to 2 percent.

[vanderwal.net Off the Top]

I wonder whether Haliburton will pay any taxes on that 2 billion, because i know federal employees will pay taxes on their 2 percent. I strongly suspect that there is some sort of tax waiver in effect for Iraq companies already isn't there?

Perens: IT Pros Must Lobby for Open Source. 27 Aug 2003: Open-source pioneer and evangelist Bruce Perens urges IT managers to lobby for the protection of open-source software from the infringing threat of software patents and legal liability.Read the short interview [RootPrompt.org -- Nothing but Unix]

Blasted!. Ouch. The Cornell College ResNet system, which connects students to the internet and the college network has been slammed with the W32/Lovsan.worm (MSBlaster) virus. This means that students will be disconnected from the network (and internet access) until things are… [Eat Your Vegetables]

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i expected this to happen at many more campuses, all those fresh new unprotected pcs plugged in at once, and blammo, worm/virus/cracker heaven….

Selecting Fast. This is a programming war story with a moral that I think is is important for those who care about their code running fast… [ongoing]

the perception of speed is like the perception of magic.

A Bastard of a late night call-out. Episode 18 But I need help now… [The Register]

How gas prices got so high

There are lots of reasons for rising prices, says MSN

Crude oil prices have stayed higher than expected, in part because it's taken longer to get Iraq back on line. In addition, about 300,000 to 400,000 barrels daily of Nigerian oil production are curtailed because of local political turmoil. At the same time, Venezuelan oil production has not returned to pre-strike levels. And on top of everything else, OPEC has cut back on quotas  <and yadda blah blah blah>

Yet oil prices always seem to spike higher and faster than other commodities – and take considerably longer to fall back. Other commodities have supply problems, yet their prices don't soar like oil. Could it be an opportunistic oligolopy is taking advantage of minor supply problems to make windfall profits knowing their “campaign contributions” and lobbyists have everything covered in DC should the populace get restless?

[Politics in the Zeros]

could it be? how? why? oh my! we should be clear that this is an age of 'capitalism', and that sometimes people profit by manipulating supply…. that's what the robber barons did so successfully, it isn't surprising that it could occur today.

Exporting Jobs? Who, Us?. India's Business Standard reported in January that the US Republican Party would be outsourcing fund-raising to call centers in India … [istori/log]

is this surprising?

Ted Agres reports in today's issue of TheScientist …. Ted Agres reports in today's issue of TheScientist that the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has launched a top-to-bottom assessment of the way the U.S. funds science. It is soliciting comments from the public, due by September 22. The goal is to improve the “efficiency, effectiveness and accountability” of U.S. science funding. (PS: All three of these criteria invite comments that advocate open access. OA supports efficency because it costs less, effectiveness because it makes research results more widely accessible and useful, and accountability because it directs funds only to essential expenses whose amount is comparatively easy to demonstrate and justify. Please consider sending comments to the OSTP.) [Open Access News]

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this is the type of situation where one might be able to push for equitable distribution of science funding. this is the sort of political decision that will either perpetuate the status quo, or allow some minor transformations that might account for information technology. i think we could also ask them to consider the relationship between information technology and the future of science, which seems to be a priority to me.