Posts from — August 2003

but hopefully you wouldn't want to be normal in these people's books. Why is it that everything is a disorder of some sort. now, sure, there are extremes, but we've seen what happens once an extreme disorder is identified, then slowly but surely, it pushes the extreme to just outside of the norm, and people doing things that are considered normal by their peers are suddenly suspect.

The Rabbit's Thesis. A true tail of a furry creature's doctoral dissertation on the superiority of rabbits to foxes and wolves. [Mark Bernstein]

well not really, but this little tale has a bit of moral.

Root Beer is a sweet carbonated beverage flavored with sassafras. Welcome to Root Beer World! Root Beer Reviews. Ask Dr. Root Beer about Root Beer Brand Names! Then ask Professor Root Beer about his reviews. And for the home brewer, a recipe for Root Beer Concentrate. More Root Beer Recipes. MetaFilter]

mmm, birch beer is better than plain old root beer any day. search the url for rankings…

I spent mine teaching and working as is usual for me for the last five years. However, other people have done far more interesting things, linked above is a colleague of mine's interview with another colleague on how he spent his summer. it's mcsweeney's so you know it's good and as most things in this world it's Fair and Balanced.

Emergency Preparedness. Canada used to have a government office called Emergency Preparedness Canada, which is now the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness/Bureau de la protection des infrastructures essentielles et de la protection civile. I don't know why, but that… [Invisible Adjunct]

planning ahead is a good thng in most cases

How Niagara Mohawk and Enron brought energy deregulation to the US.. How Niagara Mohawk and Enron brought energy deregulation to the US. Greg Palast explores the links between Mohawk, Enron, Bush I, and George Pataki and how their successful attempts at deregulation has left the US with a weaker grid and more expensive energy. [MetaFilter]

deregulation is when someone wants to break a contract so they can make more money, when someone wants to pursue their own interest over the public's in the utility or good they provide. when someone is allowed to pursue, blindly their own profit…., well you see that occasionally capitalism fails to provide the goods.

Lemmings!. Lemmings! Do you miss sending hoardes of helpless little buggers into pits, and trying to free them from their own suicidal helplessness? Then this is for you! [MetaFilter]

this was a great puzzle game, doesn't work well in safari though

A major conference on “Cibercities and the Network Society” is taking
place in Brazil next October.
More information can be obtained from their website (where the
introduction below was taken from):

http://www.cybercity.com.br/ingles/finalentry.html

“CYBERCITY is an international seminar that will gather investigators in
the area of information and communications technology, urbanists, urban
and regional planners, architects, engineers, social scientists and
other professionals in the private, public and third sectors interested
in the discussion of a society of information and knowledge with focus
on the creation of cyber cities and local development. The new
information and communications technologies demand that the companies,
governments and society establish new relationships for living together
as citizens and for knowledge management, with the aim of creating
effective strategies in areas such as: network infra-structure,
education, professional qualification , work, health, environment, fast
services, optimization of resources and consumption, with regard to the
emergence of cyber cities and the demand of cyber inclusion in the
society of information.

The objetive of CYBERCITY is to gather experts in an international forum
of information about research, studies and implementation of new
information and communication technologies with the aim of local
development and mainly to improve the living conditions of the people in
urban and rural environments, mobilizing and integrating the academic
community, experts, entrepreneurs and politicians and engage them in a
debate about the emergence of a Cyber City.”

The JORUM+ Project is creating an open-access arch …. The JORUM+ Project is creating an open-access archive for reusable learning objects. As part of the job, it has written a questionnaire “to identify members of the UK FE and HE community willing to take part in focus groups and interviews”. All who fill out the questionnaire before September 29 will be entered in a drawing for a £20 Amazon voucher. [Open Access News]

This looks like another interesting project…. I hope it extends to international intent.

Australian statistics on Internet activity.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has an interesting publication on statistics on Internet activity conducted through the Internet Service Provider (ISP) industry in Australia.It contains results from all identified ISPs operating in Australia in respect of the three months ended September 2002.

Highlights of some of the findings are:

• DSL connections increased by 112% reflecting the accelerating uptake of broadband (access speeds equal to or greater than 256kbs) services.
• The increasing uptake of broadband services is evident in the large increase shown in the volume of data downloaded, up 28% between March quarter 2002 and September quarter 2002. This builds on the 42% increase in data downloaded between September quarter 2001 and March quarter 2002.

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

This has some interesting stats, but i wonder how much of that data is real use and how much is bloat use, like virus, html email, etc. remember the goal of industry is to get you to buy new stuff, so the way to do that is to make it seem slower than it really is.