Posts from — January 2004

it is somewhat interesting, it is strange to see what people believe or say they believe. i can see how it is problematic, what is best is the way they construct the experts or perhaps just the people who have opinons….

uiweb: How to manage smart people. Over the years I've experienced many mistakes and successes in both how I was managed, and how I managed others. What follows is a short distillation of some of what I've learned. There's no one way to manage people, but there are some approaches that I think most good managers share. [Tomalak's Realm]

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interesting analysis

to the best of my knowledge, which is somewhat limited, you will not be able to buy the g5's from the old cluster from virginia tech, so stop looking and to to store.apple.com and check under refurbished, look for a dual g5 with 10.2.7, it is about as close as you'll get, or so i think.

Bush Stonewalls 9/11 Panel, Opposes Request for More Time. The Bush administration, for whatever reason, has prevented the 9/11 panel from doing its job properly. Now it opposes the bipartisan investigators' request for more time to finish the task. [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Maximizing Research Impact Through Self-Archiving. Maximizing Research Impact Through Self-Archiving
http://jekyll.sissa.it/jekyll_comm/articoli/art07_01_eng.htm

Researchers and their universities are beginning to realize that the online era has made it possible to enhance the impact of their research dramatically. It's no longer necessary to mail or e-mail reprints of peer-reviewed articles for them to be cited in others' research. Research can now be publicly self-archived in a university's Eprint Archives, making it instantly accessible to all would-be users worldwide, without the need to make or respond to reprint requests. Researchers, of course, have long since posted their papers on their own Web sites. But searchers had difficulty finding them using conventional search engines. Now, thanks to the Open Archives Initiative, the infrastructure for maximizing university research impact is already in place or at least available. Needed now are institutional policies and computational tools designed to create and fill the university Eprint Archives quickly. Stevan Harnad of the University of Quebec at Montreal says universities need to adopt a self-archiving policy that extends their existing “publish or perish” policy to “publish with maximal impact.” A potential model for such a policy, along with free software for creating a standardized online university CV, can be found at:

http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/archpolnew.html.

In addition, Harnad urges university libraries to help with the first wave of self-archiving, doing “proxy” self-archiving for those researchers who aren't already doing it themselves.
[Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant]

The Packet Gang [Interactivist Info Exchange]

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a nice theoretical exposition on opennness and its issues.

as many people know, email worms have pretty much shut down many email systems in the last few days.

Here is my tentative server based solution to the problem:

tail the maillog to an application that keeps statistics on each users normal behavior as per sending and receiving email, have a normal period of a few months of running use.

if the logs suddenly show significant change from the norm, like the sending of hundreds of emails where the person usually sends one or two, the person's smtp priviledges are turned off.

Also use the logs watcher to look at the number of emails received with the same or similar topics, we could use a bayesian engine to give this a stronger analysis, and if there is a sudden increase in traffic from certain hosts, certain topics, etc. that mail should be immediately quarantined, if the flood of similar materials gets too high for quarantine, then they should be rejected at reception or dropped into /dev/null

it is my theory, that by combining these two tactics, email floods and viral worms can be prevented. they are also going to be useful in detecting and preventing massive spam. Once you have this in place you can then coordinate lists with other mailhosts to form strategic partnerhships which could be used to more easily identify and prevent worms and email attacks from occuring.

PROFESSORS ON COKE, REDUX. I noted last night the raging debate among the elite scholar-bloggers as to the stimulant of choice for the long hard slog through the life… [OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY]

Listen with the Analytical Marxist..

Go to Erik Olin Wright’s website where he has today placed some delightful stories he made up for his children and nephews, nieces etc. You need Windows Media Player. If, like my kids, yours like to listen to tapes of stories you can easily download and play them these. Libertarians beware — they might turn your kids into analytical Marxists. At least, that’s what I’m hoping. (Warning: I’ve no idea how much traffic he’s prepared for so it may not all be plain sailing).

For those of you who just want to read his papers, you’re boring, but they are here.

[Crooked Timber]

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these are worth listening to, just to hear, if they weren't in windows it would be much better though.

Disturbing image from Iraq.

I just received this by email from a friend.

WELCOME TO THE WAR IN IRAQ

Attached is actual night-vision footage shot from a U.S. Apache attack helicopter engaging Iraqis, whom allegedly were attempting to launch a Stinger missile at the Apache. The Apache responds with approximately one-hundred rounds of 30mm cannon fire, which is, ironically, the least powerful weapons system onboard the helicopter. The footage has been “dumbed down” to VHS resolution before conversion to MPEG, since the actual night-vision system on the Apache provides a much sharper and more detailed image.

4.65 MB mpeg movie

I realize that the targets were probably a threat to the helicopter and the actions within the rules of engagement, but it is disturbing none the less.

[Joi Ito's Web]

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I'm not really sure about this movie, movies can be edited. however, as a bit of anti-war propoganda it is pretty darn good at demonstrating overkill, if it actually happened like this. apparently there is a variety of versions of this video floating around. i think that if soldiers are attacked they should respond in kind, with overwhelming force if possible, but this video shows they are possibly firing on a wounded man, if the voice over isn't edited, and that is problematic, if it is true…. which it might not be, but also might be.