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

old ipod is dying.

so i used my audible.com $100.00 discount to buy a new 15gb one, it will be here tomorrow. weee!

i must say, this original ipod, a 5gb, that came free with a server, is quite nice, and it lasted a long time. it still sort of works, but two times in the last month it has just stopped and required a complete reload to get it going, oh and once it has to be hit to get going…. so really, it had to be replaced. i didn't need a dock or any of that crap, and i don't need a whole lot of space, all my music fits in 25gb, but… i don't listen to all of it on any given day. all i need is my playlists. which all in all are about 10g, which i had paired down to fit on my 5g ipod. the extra space will be nice.

Good Thing He's Joking. This Chun fellow could be very dangerous if we didn’t all know that academic blurbs are written by university administrations and forced on unwilling shy and retiring academics. That said, I genuinely believe that some of my colleagues really are the leading authorities on certain things. But better not to name names…. [Discourse.net]

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hmm, i get a fair amount of 'expert on' stuff sent my way. not as much as other's i'm sure. but then i'm not really an expert on anything per se, but i do have some knowledge scattered about, mixed with trivia, and nonsense that tends to help people resolve their questions.

but then i do not think that this is a joke, if a professor isn't an expert in something, then what are they teaching?

Weblog research roundtable. Excellent multiparty interview with weblog researchers Cori Dauber, Kaye Trammell, Jill Walker, and Alex Halavais. I especially liked Alex Halavais' insight into the future of weblogs:

“I suspect that over the next few years we will see a lot of calls
suggesting that blogging has died, and I suspect that in a sense they
will be right. The act of keeping a “Weblog” as a separate entity will
become something of an anachronism. The broader world of collaborative
Web publishing will continue to grow and converge with other
technologies, including IM and e-mail. Imagine asking someone today if
they are an “e-mailer.” That question made sense, among a certain
group, 15 years ago, when you weren't sure if someone had e-mail or
not. I have a feeling that the production of public media — whether in
the form of Weblogs, wikis, collaboratively filtered lifelogs, or some
form that I am too shortsighted to predict — will be the moving force
of a new era.”

[Seb's Open Research]

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yep, alex hits the head on the nail, once again read more for other insightes

Are you a geek?. Ken always finds the good tests. He's a a “Total Geek” with a score of 26.23274% (gotta love that precision). I, on the other hand, am a “Poser” with a score of 6.1144%. I'm not sure that's a bad thing …. [IDblog]

researchers are finallyl realizing that antibiotics aren't good for the human system and some now suggest that you need to recover from them, which i completely agree with.

E-signatures fail to catch on. Florence Olsen dares to write about the failure of market-based e-signature solutions in Federal Computer Week: “Electronic signatures have often been touted as a cornerstone of e-government, providing the legal underpinnings needed to do away with paper and move transactions… [InternetPolicy.net]

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hmm, i've used e-signatures before, they are a bit painful to get right though….

Abstinence-Only: Does It Work?. At institutions that accept government money, teachers must advocate abstinence until marriage. But is the policy realistic? By Jane E. Brody. [New York Times: Education]

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no, it does not work. enforcing ignorance never works.

Handmade Houseboats. Cheapest way to live on water [Cool Tools]

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been having those escapist thoughts again. this could provide the basis for a solid escapist fantasy.

TANGENTIUM

is an online journal devoted to alternative
perspectives on IT, democracy, and society. Each month it investigates a
different theme, with a feature essay, background information, definitions
of key terms and concepts, and reviewed hyperlinks.

The current (May 2004) issue is on

Anarchism, Activism and IT. [A blog doesn't need a clever name]

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the only issue i have with this, is that it seems to be very much a platform for someone to publish their own ideas, but that is supposed to change, so perhaps it will get more interesting.

SPU Monthly News Flash: IP-related activities.

The latest ITU Strategy and Policy Monthly News Flash is now available. This month's Flash is devoted to IP-related activities in the Strategy and Policy Unit.

Topics include:

• ITU Workshop on Internet Governance
• ITU WSIS Thematic Meeting on Countering Spam
• APT-ITU Joint Workshop on ENUM and IDN

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

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interesting stuff at the itu in may