All those topics that i wish i had time to pursue more earnestly.

Student loan update, and some thoughts on Deleuzian networks of control: “Yesterday the Royal Bank returned the money they withdrew from my bank accounts.

Since sending my letter on Tuesday, the CBC has been the only news source to publish it and the Royal Bank the only institution to contact me. Of course I didn’t expect to change the world in three days, but I am a bit disappointed and disheartened that no one else I contacted considered my experience and concerns either news-worthy or significant enough to respond.

—-snip—-

Deleuze got it right: we no longer live in Foucault’s disciplinary society; we live in societies of control.

‘In the societies of control … what is important is no longer either a signature or a number, but a code… The numerical language of control is made of codes that mark access to information, or reject it. We no longer find ourselves dealing with the mass/individual pair. Individuals have become ‘dividuals,’ and masses, samples, data, markets, or ‘banks’ … The disciplinary man was a discontinuous producer of energy, but the man of control is undulatory, in orbit, in a continuous network … Man is no longer man enclosed, but man in debt…’

—–snip—-
This type of control is particularly insidious because there is no panopticon. Control is diffuse and we can’t locate – or fix – responsibility and accountability long enough to affect change. And it’s particularly dangerous because it allows each of us to play the victim of an imaginary structure.”

(Via Purse Lip Square Jaw.)

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Anne Hits it on the head as usual. this is the same thing that is happening in the u.s. in regards to anything ’security’ the imaginary structure powered by an inability to imagine difference, fixes us, into a system of normalcy that may in fact not function for any parties, but yet still controls all parties.

US Moves to Muzzle Dissident Voices: “In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval. The restriction, condemned…”

(Via Spitting Image.)

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what was it now that democracy requires? was it freedom of speech and the distribution of knowledge amongst its populace? even if that knowledge is antagonistic toward the current regime…..

“Successful” Class Blog: “Hopefully, we’ll be seeing more and more of this:

I have to hand it to all of you, you’ve done an amazing job with keeping things fresh and real at the Class Blog this semester. If you remember, I started the semester with a plea to participate and a flat out declaration, that ‘this is a grand experiment.’ Well, for my money, this has been a great success!

Cole Campalese at Penn State used a Weblog with his Information Sciences and Technology class this fall to discuss issues related to class. The part I really like is that he hopes to add to the blog in upcoming semesters, making it a course text. It’s good stuff. Take a look, for instance, at this thread about computers that can make themselves smarter.

I know it’s obvious, but I just want to point out that the instructor’s investment in this blog is probably what made it a success in large measure. Teaching with a Weblog takes work, but it’s work that I think, and it seems others think is well worth it.”

(Via Weblogg-ed News.)

been there, done that. this is a pretty good example, but it doesn’t really integrate as much as i like.

Hellacious Riders: “3. We are the only site on the internet to offer for free 1 terabyte email accounts that includes 500 megabyte attachments with POP3. Your email account can store 40 million emails, games, videos, MP3s or pictures on our solar powered systems.”

(Via .)

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and people said it would not happen.

Hamster: “”

(Via .)

caution… may cause laughter.

Stocking Stuffer: “Now available: the Blackwell Companion to Digital Humanities, edited by Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens and John Unsworth. Tabke of contents below the fold. Note the heavy representation of UMD folk: in addition to Susan’s leadership in co-editing the volume, I…”

(Via Matthew G. Kirschenbaum.)

—-

several good reads in it though. from Matt to my colleague Charles, to Anja, and others, it is a solid and thorough volume.

Library or Tower?: “Matt K. has started a bit of a debate over on his site about the significance of Google’s recent foray into digital libraries. Many have lauded this move as a gigantic leap forward for us thinking (and, potentially, non-thinking) humans…”

(Via Things as They Are.?.)

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library or tower or…. ocean…. or market.

Kevin Kelly — Cool Tools: “Modest Needs, a minuscule non-profit, grants modest (under $200) one-time cash gifts to those who require just a little help to get them through a tough time. A need, if honored, is granted within 72 hours, with no strings attached. Modest Needs does this with commendable efficiency via the web (it’s not hard to be broke and still get online), heart-warming sympathy (every request is read by a volunteer), and impressive reach (220 requests granted this year, or 7% of the million dollars sought for). “

——-

this is the type of thing that we need more of in the u.s.

Battelle Argues that Google Is Mutating: “

Search guru John Battelle thinks Google has just undergone a major mutation, but I’m not so sure I agree. Here’s his case:

John Battelle’s Searchblog: Print Implications: Google As Builder

—snip—

Now Google has in effect become a subcontractor to libraries who will be deciding what to put on line from their collections. It’s still the library’s decision, Google is just providing technical help (and getting paid for it, I’d imagine?).

As Battelle notes ‘Google has announced that the results will be included in the index, not separated out in a vertical book search engine.’ There is an issue as to how the stuff is ranked at first, although Google Scholar gives us some hints. Over time, it gets linked to like everything else and it seems to me the problem shrinks, no?

“

tp://www.discourse.net/”>Discourse.net.)

—–

they key problem to me is that google will eventually de-hierarchize traditional assumptions about what is knowledge, what is ‘good’ information, what should be read, and what should be scanned, etc. if slashdot is on the same plane as a peer-reviewed academic journal, then, i think there will be some issues to resolve in the educational infrastructure, moreso than we have now.

Computer Stupidities: Operating Systems: ” The interview seemed to be going well up to this point, with the guy seeming to understand most of the stuff I was throwing out (even the stuff I wasn’t too sure about myself) until I happened to mention that the DG workstation, along with all the other workstations and servers in our office (save the NT server, of course) ran DG/UX 5.4R3.10:

Me: ‘Yeah, and this thing runs DG/UX 5.4R3.10.’

Him: ‘What’s that?’

He stares blankly. My heart sinks.

Him: ‘So does that run as a thread under NT?’

Me: ‘No. It’s an OS. It just runs by itself.’

Him: ‘Oh oh, so you start up NT, then–’

Me: ‘No. UNIX. It’s an operating system. It runs by itself, not under NT.’v

He stares blankly. So much for this prospective employee.”

(Via .)

funnies