Insults Unpunished Here's a blog I enjoyed reading. It's political, it's funny -- well -- it's got to be funny, or we'd all have to go out and get guns. Enjoy.
Posts
US Trade Deficit America currently owes the world about $4 trillion. And it keeps rising everyday. That's damn scary when you realize that America is the world's most powerful economy, and it's intricately tied with every first world economy around the world -- if America's economy hiccups, economists around the world wet their pants. So how did America get there? And how is it going to get out? Read the commentary from Robert Kuttner, of BusinessWeek magazine. One thing for sure -- America's current fascination with hunting terrorists, starting wars and building a wall around North America isn't going to help -- a bit more focus on the economy might though.
The Progress Paradox
Here's a review of the Progress Paradox from BusinessWeek Magazine. This is a book that I am a little curious to read, and goes on my wish list, just below the Philosophy of the Matrix -- why below? Because I'm too much of a solipsist to think that the cure for the world's woes lie in everyone else's reality and not mine. I believe damnit! Anyway, the Progress Paradox -- it looks at the belief American's have that the times of the past were the better days -- the book contends that life has never been as good as it is today. The book addresses the general sentiment that the good times are over by looking at: 1) contemporary material life, 2) why people are so unhappy, and, 3) suggestions on how to treat some of the social problems. One of the book's conclusions apparently is that money isn't necessarily everything -- it doesn't guarantee a happy life. This may be more of a startling revelation for Americans than it is for Ca
Bush OKs Cutting of Alaska's Forests Well, if there ever was an anti-environmentalist, it's Bush. Ever since he came into office, his administration has been trying to open the last US old-growth forest -- and they've succeeded. The administration has given permission for the lumber industry to log and develop 300,000 acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest . What took hundreds-thousands of years to create, Bush took four years of trying to destroy.
Movies I Need to See NOW! LOTR: The Return of the King - and it looks like I'm going to see it today! Big Fish - well, it's Tim Burton. It's weird. It's wonderous. It has monsters -- and they're the good guys! The Last Samurai - it's a remake of so many Japanese movies and westerns -- how can I resist? Looney Toons: Back in Action - oh, why the hell not?! It's silly ole fun! Timeline - I only saw the trailer for this, but it's SciFi, time-traveling, and looks like good action. Might as well! Paycheck - Philip K. Dick's tale of the future gone bad -- good enough for me!
Bush's Deafeat Allows the Environment to Breathe The Bush Administration, among many things, is stupid. Some of the other things they are? Well, stupid ... and stupid ... and hey, stupid too! The administration recently tried to get EPA changes that would allow utilities, refineries and other industrial facilities to do routine maintenance, without having to install additional pollution controls. Talk about duh! At least, not everyone in America is as stupid is the Grand Poobah. Several states challenged the changes in courts and won. The environment can now breathe at little more freely -- for now -- but think America -- think before you decide to re-elect Bush -- the guy's an idiot. The world knows it -- you know it -- it's embarassing!
Guilty of Refusing Queen's Honour This is a good one! Apparently it's a big secret, the list of those who have refused to accept the Knighthood from the Queen -- or the other honours like: the Order of the British Empire, or Commander of the British Empire. That is -- it was secret, until the list was leaked to the press. Naturally, fun ensued!
Amazon More Than Retail Amazon made a name for being a pure e-tailer, and it looks like this year, it will mature to its first year of being in the black. But what else has Amazon set it's sights on? Software. It aims to be the e-tailer platform of choice -- while its merchandise business is doing well, the company is polishing off the software that has the potential to make its services pitch bigger. On the way, it's co-opting the practices of the open source movement, and winning grassroots friends and free labour. More and more, Amazon is beginning to look like the Linux cult -- and it could make a lot of little guys rich in the process. Read the article at BusiessWeek.
NAFTA & Mexico Why has NAFTA soured the palates of many Mexicans and a growing number of Latin Americans? Answer: Washington. More precisely, the Bush Administration (yes -- there is nothing that I can't blame on the administration). Mexico's envoy to the UN, Adolfo Aguilar says Washington "isn't interested in a relationship of equals with Mexico, but rather in a relationship of convenience and subordination." Where the US had the opportunity to play big brother to a developing economy, it has turned that relationship, like so many others, into one where it plays the big bully. Bush is only interested in his war, and closing America to the world -- trade is paying the price, and at a time when the US runs a huge deficit that's being bankrolled by foreign banks. Go figure.
Expensing Stock Options To expense stock options or not? That is not the question. The question really is, 'Should companies be allowed to continue hiding their options expenses from investors?' That's what tech companies want to continue doing with their industry wide lobbying of the US Congress. Their ploy is that it will cost the US jobs to overseas tech companies. Bullshit. THe only way to stem the tide of research jobs is to make it so that the US produce smart, competitive, innovative people with technical background -- yes, I know I over simplify, but so is the argument that expensing stock options allow US companies to keep jobs in the US.
Beagle for Christmas The EU will be playing Santa to Mars this Christmas -- on Christmas day, the small probe, Beagle 2, will touch down on the Martian surface. The Beagle 2 will beat two of NASA's probes, Spirit and Opportunity, slated to land in January. The Beagle 2's mission is to look for signs of life on Mars.
Wired News Here's what I found of interest in the last half-an-hour, surfing the Wired site. Flying Saucer - the US Navy is again putting some money behind research into building a flying saucer. This time around, they're funding a Russian group that claimed to have built and tested a flying saucer in the 90s. This is more than just optimizing on the lessons learned from down aliens ;-) -- there's actually some cool physics involved. Kazaa isn't to Blame - here's a shocker for you. A Dutch court threw out a case suing Kazaa for copyright infringement. Apparently, the Dutch thinks software is OK -- what people do with may not be. I like to use the analogy of WMD -- WMDs don't kill people. Saddam does! ;-) Another Blow for the Music Industry - a US federal appeals court threw out a lower court ruling that allowed the RIAA to force ISPs to reveal the identifies of their users. The mass suing of their customers just got a tad harder. Free Your Informa
Windows Shell Replacement Got too much time on your hands? Screw with Bill Gates -- change the Windoze shell. These sites are a good place to start your adventure (or to kill your computer). Shell Extension City - gateway to the world of shell replacements! Litestep - the Litestep shell! ShellFront - a place to get the latest on shells!
Classic Games Here are links to some great games -- stolen from PCFormat Magazine -- May 2003 issue. Title: Blow out! Download: World of Spectrum Title: BMX Kidz Download: World of Spectrum Title: Bombscare Download: World of Spectrum Title: Booty Download: World of Spectrum Title: Brainstorm Download: World of Spectrum Title: Byte Bitten Download: World of Spectrum Title: Carrier Command Download: World of Spectrum Title: Chicken Chase Download: World of Spectrum Title: Dark Sceptre Download: World of Spectrum Title: Dictator Download: World of Spectrum Title: European Five-a-Side Download: World of Spectrum Title: Fahrenheit 3000 Download: World of Spectrum Title: Gothik Download: World of Spectrum Title: Gregory Loses His Clock Download: World of Spectrum Title: Gunstar Download: World of Spectrum Title: Happiest Days of your Life Download: Wor
A New Wireless Age Another article from BusinessWeek magazine. There's about to be an explosion in the wireless industry. Since the 30s the airwaves have been tightly regulated, but the FCC in the US is about to change all that, and poised to take advantage of the free airwaves are companies touting technologies such as Smart Antennas, Mesh Networks and Agile Radios.
The Taming of the Internet Another article from BusinessWeek -- Spam! Spam! Spam! Governments around the world are moving to regulate the internet -- in America, legislation already awaits the signature of the President. A lot of the blame goes straight to spammers, who will undoubtedly be left untouched by the illegalities of what they do -- a lot of us however, will see tighter controls over what we do in the office and what we do at home, as corporations assert control over the use of their assets and local ISPs try to stem the abuse of their networks. Try some of these statistics on for size and ask if you wouldn't want something done as well: 10.4 million spam e-mails are sent every minute worldwide; 74% of executives say e-mail is even more vital to their business than the telephone; 80% of the e-mail reaching AOL is tagged as spam and blocked. That's 2.5 billion messages a day. 7% of US web surfers say they have purchased something from an unsolicited e-mail.
Coming Out in Corporate America An article in BusinessWeek magazine -- even though they comprise 6% of the American population, and are one of the most highly educated minority, homesexuals face stiff discrimation as move up America's corporate ladder. But they are changing the face of corporate America. Openly gay corporate leaders include David Geffen, DreamWorks SKG co-founder, former Quark CEO Tim Gill and Ford Vice-Chairman Allan D. Gilmour. More and more, corporations are instituting policies banning discrimination for sexual orientation in the workplace -- but how much have things changed when 36 states in the US still make it legal to discriminate for sexual orientation in the workplace.
Microsoft's Swastika One of Microsoft's fonts contain the symbol of the swastika. MS quickly released a patch to remove the symbol. I don't get it. The swastika is used in many cultures and was used before Hitler took it, in Asia. That being said, people who take offense to things like that should really think hard about it. We're putting a lot of power into the symbol by denying it. The more we deny it, the more power it has. There is nothing offensive about the swastika -- what's offensive, was what it was used to symbolize. The Buddhist religion uses the swastika to symbolize the footsteps of the Buddha.
US-Visit Well, nowhere in the US constitution does it say the Americans really have to give a rat's ass about non-American rights -- so, that's exactly what the US government is planning on exploiting with US-Visit -- the biometric database that will be filled with fingerprints and pictures of everyone entering the US from abroad. The plan is to have visitors names and fingerprints rapidly compared with those of known terrorists -- but who's a known terrorist? And what other non-mentionables will the US run visitors against? On one hand I agree with the Americans -- it's their country, so they can decide to welcome whoever they like -- but with the pendulum of American foreign policy, who really knows how the database will be used, and against who? The US makes some interesting friends overseas -- today's known terrorist may just be someone that one of the US government's 'friends' don't like today. Or the US may allow immigrants into the count
Steady Supply
From InformationWeek Online -- it looks like it's going to be a jolly season for retailers -- estimates are that retail sales will be up 5.7% this season over last year's, a 3.5% increase that will ring in $217.4 billion in November/December -- at least in the US. But usually the trend in the US gets reflected in Canada. A lot of the increase will come from companies being able to meet consumer demand -- companies that invested in Supply Chain processes and technologies over the last few years will now be reaping the rewards. A lot of those systems and processes are around planning and forecasting systems.
The Rise of India The cover story of the Dec. 8 issue of BusinessWeek magazine -- about the India's growth, its brainpower, and how corporate America is being reshaped. From the 90s, America saw the trend to outsource call centres and development jobs to cheap labour in India. Everyone have heard of the stories of people call help desks and not knowing that the person on the line engaging in small talk is actually have a world away, and has never seen North America. In the 70s and 80s, America saw its manufacturing jobs migrate to Asia (predominantly China), then in the 80s and 90s, it saw it's electronics engineering dominance wrested by Asia (Korea, Taiwan, etc.) -- but as it lost those jobs and underwent periods of pain that saw unemployment as workers were retrained, it emerged with a higher class of employees and jobs -- jobs that offered higher wages, greater benefits, etc. What now however, as India takes on the American service and research jobs? Two paths lie ahe
Trade War? Since the Bush administration took power, the US has been slowly sliding into protectionism -- 9/11 only served to accelerate the process under the guise of security. As a colleague of mine likes to say, "security has trumped trade." But the 9/11 is now only the latest excuse that Bush is using to reinforce the wall around America -- the economic slump the world has been in, resulting in the loss of American jobs and an upcoming election, has put the Bush administration in the position where short term gains and appearances far outweighed long term stability and growth. Recently, the US has been belligerent in its responses to rulings handed down by the WTO. Granted the WTO has mostly sided against the US in the past, but when you really dig into the heart of the matter, you'll find the US the cause of most of its woes. If it wasn't for American businesses striving to give American consumers the lowest cost at the price of American manufacturing jobs,
The Top Givers Another from BusinessWeek Online -- America's top givers -- the people, who've made the billions, and are giving back during their lifetime. I, like everyone else, like to take a stab at Gates every now and again, but between him and his wife, they've $24,976 million dollars away to charities they support -- that's over 50% of their wealth! After reading this article, I actually felt like rejoining the human race.
Wal-Mart Nation Americans it seems are finally waking up to the horrible noise of the Wal-Mart nation. After decades of businesses working hard to driving costs down, therefore keeping prices down, the downside of the strategy is showing up as a social disaster waiting to happen. Lowering costs to give consumers the lowest price has it costs. Among them is the paying of workers lower and lower wages, the outsourcing of jobs to temps or overseas labourers, and keeping the working stiff just where s/he is, as there is no possibility of career advancement, therefore no hope of ever achieving the American dream. It's a disturbing trend that's not just perpetrated by Wal-Mart, but also other businesses trying to keep pace.
Patriot Act - part deux The US government obviously hasn't learned the lessons of history. Back in the heyday of the cold war, 'commies' were prosecuted in secret. Now, the US government is giving more and more power to the FBI -- and trying to give more to the CIA and military -- to subpoena information from private companies and individuals, who would be under gag order, in the form of 'national security letters.' Request via these letters don't require judicial oversight, don't have to be made public , but evidence derived from them could be used to persecute and harass individuals. Nothing like protecting freedom. Makes you wonder who the terrorists are down south.
Uni-Wheeled Personal Transport Bombardier is out to make a uni-wheeled personal transport, called the Embrio . Think of the Segway going extreme! The concept is still in design phase, and a prototype is pretty far off, so for now, you'll have to settle for an animated video of what the Embrio may look like.
Cavalcade of Lights
Cavalcade of Lights Toronto will be kicking off their year end festivities this Friday, and running to the new year, with the First Lighting ceremony. Check out the agenda and the venues. I would love to see the new Strange Fruit and Circus Orange shows. I saw Strange Fruit before. Photos of their visit to Toronto can be found at the Street Festival galleries .
iTunes Cracked
DVD Jon has done it again. Four years after cracking the DVD security system, allowing DVDs to be copied and spawning a small industry that produces and markets DVD copying programs, he's cracked Apple's MPEG-4 security, allowing MP4 files playing in QuickTime to also be streamed into an unprotected file. His program, QTFairUse , was released as an open source project on the internet last week.
MIT Technology Review Dec/Jan
Check out the latest from MIT Technology Review magazine. The online version allows you to view some articles online, while of course, requiring you to have a subscription to view the rest. Articles of note: 7 Hot Projects ; Prototype - technologies heading from the lab to the real world soon; and Innovation News - emerging technologies.
Hidden Cost of In-Store Technology While everyone's pretty much up in arms about the benefits of RFID - from total visibility of the supply chain, to insane control over in-store promotions and loss prevention, little do the pundits speak of the hidden costs. If you're running a business that's been around for more than 10-years, you most likely have a hodgepodge of in-store infrastructure that can barely keep up with the demands of your POS, inventory, merchandising and fulfillment needs. I wouldn't be surprised if most in-store infrastructure is still non-ethernet networks, using some long dead protocol to creep data from one place to the next, let alone corporate HQ or the varied suppliers that are hungry for POS data. To realize the prophesies of RFID, most in-store infrastructure will need a complete overhaul, then connectivity to corporate HQ will need to be expanded. That done, centralized IT will have to figure out how to collect the massive data dump, aggr
Pep Talk Here's a great article about the pep talk from Forbes Magazine. The article is well written, and covers the pep talk given by various leaders, both real and fictional, and why they seem to inspire followers to go out there and go for blood, even though it may be a futile situation. The article is great for the number of quotes it uses to get its point across -- a great collection of rousing speeches.
IT Outsourcing Another article from the Retail Council of Canada, regarding the outsourcing of IT. While decisions are not complicated for outsourcing of commodities, they can be for the outsourcing of business processes. The article suggests that it's easier to outsource areas that are not customer facing, and less so for those areas that directly touch customers. The gist of which is: if it's a competitive advantage to your business, don't give it to someone else to run.
Home Depot Here's an interview of the President of Home Depot Canada, Annette Vershuren. Since Home Depot's move to Canada, they've expanded from the 19 stores they started with, to around 100 today. That's an incredible growth in just seven years. In the interview by the Retail Council of Canada, Annette Vershuren reveals some of the company's targets over the next little while -- they're planning on continued growth -- which may come at the expense of others.
Portfolio Management Here's something that's apparent to anyone in a process based organization -- "the process, and not technology, makes for effective IT governance." It drives me up the wall when I'm talking to technology people and they just don't get it -- the mindset of many is still a couple of years behind, where it was spend, spend, spend. This article from InformationWeek, talks about portfolio management, and it's application to the management of IT -- where IT assets and projects are analyzed in terms of goals, risks, costs and returns. Business groups have been practicing this for years, however IT is only now getting started on managing themselves as a business.
Piracy The movie industry is now in approaching the precipice that the music industry lept over -- how to deal with consumer demand of digital content, anytime, any where, and on any damn device they want. The music industry was slow to embrace digital content, and was left to catch up, while launching lawsuits against their customers. The movie industry is looking to learn a lesson from their media brethren -- and hopefully their approach will not piss off the consumer, but deliver the goods. My advice to the industry: flood the market with DVDs -- cheap DVDs. People will pay the $10 to buy a cheap DVD, even one they may not like that much, just because of the convenience -- make it so that DVDs become an impulse item and the market will be saturated -- who'll need to pirate movies after that? Read more at InformationWeek.
Mac SuperComputer It's in line to be the third fastest supercomputer in the world, sustaining a speed of 8.7 teraflops -- and it's built from off the shelf Macs. I kid you not. The VirginiaTech Terascale Cluster, consists of 1,100 Apple Macs, each with two 64-bit IBM CPUs. The whole system cost around $5m -- cheap in the world of supercomputing. Check out the current ranking of supercomputers.
The Passion The Mel Gibson film to be released Feb. next year, has already received its share of condemnation -- mostly from people who haven't seen it, but are willing to jump on the bandwagon and denounce anything that looks at the life of Christ. Here's an article from the New York Post, that got a review copy of the film and invited a panel consisting of a Rabbi, a Professor, a Priest, and a random person (a Baptist) to view the film -- their comments after seeing the film is on the site.
Enron's Continuing Saga As the US government continue to put the screws on Enron's executives, more information is emerging on how a small group of people managed to scam billions. This BusinessWeek article focuses on Lea Fastow, wife of Andy Fastow, former CFO. Lea Fastow was a former middle-manager with Enron, before quitting to have her kids. But she participation in the company's financial activities didn't stop there. She's accused of helping her husband swindle money from the company, and the US Justice Department is going after her, in order to put pressure on her husband to squeal. The article is a most entertaining read!
Supply Chain drives Innovation Another article from InformationWeek. Think innovation is always the domain of Tech companies with limitless R&D budgets? Think again. Innovation in business technologies is driven by some unlikely sources -- say Supply Chains of retail companies. Read this article from InformationWeek to see what the likes of Wal-Mart, McKesson, GM, P&G, and the like, are doing to drive innovation.
Sourcing Linux An article from InformationWeek magazine. The SCO lawsuit against the world that uses Linux continues. IBM, the main target currently, is digging its heels in, and digging into its pocket to fight the suit. But, the suit does raise interesting questions. Regardless of the validity of SCO's claims, questions around the process for accepting code into the Linux fold abounds. Who's to say that the code supplied by developers, as noble as their motives may be, may not infringe on someone's patent?
But don't forget your child in overhead compartment ... Innovative design -- for parents who take their children on regular flights with them. I like the concept! Imagine strapping your child on your carry-on luggage and dragging him/her through the airport with as much ease as you drag your carry-on luggage. Cool!
Borneo's Forests Every year, an area half the size of Switzerland is felled in Borneo . Once the trees are gone, the animals that found shelter there go with them -- wild orangutans , sun bears and clouded leopards -- all of which could be extinct in 10-20 years. What happens when there are no more trees? Unemployment for the loggers that are today chopping down the trees. But there is hope. With help from environmental groups, logging companies are trying their hand at environmental ways of harvesting the forest without raping it. Why the sudden change? And who gives 2-cents about another third world country that is being taken advantage of? Believe it or not, big western retailers -- that's who. Big western retailers that are scared that their consumers my boycott their products if they are the result of third world pillaging. Go figure -- a little protest goes a long way. Hopefully, it's not too late. Read the article in BusinessWeek.
Tweak Windows Here's a couple of sites to help you get the crap out of Windows so your system can perform better. Annoyances.org - this based on books of the same name. You won't find all the books contents here, but a lot of tips, articles, etc., to help out anyway. XP Tune Up - this site is pretty much for XP Pro, though most of the tips will work with XP Home as well. Windows Support Center - this isn't an MS site, but it's staffed by Windows Pros.
Customizing Windows So, you tired of the drab Windows GUI? Not to worry, there are many folks with nothing better to do with their time either. Check out some of the spiffy, snazzy, and jazzy ways you can unwind your middle finger at Mr. Gates. All for fun of course -- and if your computer dies a horrible death, don't blame me! From a design perspective though, you will find some really creative stuff happening here. winCustomize - an online community dedicated to so much desktop mods, you'll either spend the rest of your life here or run away screaming! Here's a few of the cool images I found at the site for wallpapers: Archangel (from X-Men), Rift , Stained , Purple Lightness , Digital Inversion , Gyrations , Titan Reflections , and Navigation . There's actually much more there than I have time to browse through. File Forum - this site has more than just pretty things. It actually has files covering just about every aspect of your PC. Stardock - these gu
Artificial Life Can computers think? Well, not yet, but here are a few folks that are working on making that happen: 20Q.net - this is an online project to create a neural-net on the net. Contributors -- that is you -- participate by helping to train the program to recognize objects already in its database, or to add new objects to its database. Conway's Life - here's an example of evolution in the computer, using a cellular automata simulation. Bitozoa 2 - another evolution simulation. Cafun - a set of Java applets that allows the simulation of complex systems. Mbiti World - here's another simulation of evolution. Boppers - a simulation program that was included in an artificial life book from the 90s. The book is posted online as well. Planet Wator - another artificial life simulator.
US Backs Away from saving Ozone You gotta wonder what's up with Americans -- they had agreed with the world to lower the use of the Ozone eating chemical, Methyl bromide, by 2005 -- but are now asking for that ban to be lifted so they can increase use to around 38% in 2005. Why? Cause they need time to find alternatives -- yet, there is Dow Chemicals, proclaiming that they do have an alternative, that's not damaging to the ozone layer, and is already in use in 30 countries. What gives?
Guantánamo Bay US imperialism continues to this day. Here's a short, and not so sweet, history of Cuba's Guantánamo Bay, where the US maintains a Naval presence, despite having hostile relations with the Cuban government. A case of the strong imposing its will on the weak. And in oil rich Iraq -- is there any hope for better?
Clive Barker's Coldheart Canyon I just finished this 600+ page book. It kept me with it, all the way to the end -- and I still wanted more. Like Barker's other fiction, this book is a mixture of fantasy & horror -- it's well written, and even after scary the hell out of you, it will make you want to keep picking it up. Barker creates a world inhabited by the ghosts of dead movie stars, that had led less than good lives -- their indulgences served to keep them alive after dead, imprisoned in Coldheart Canyon. In that place, with time and rules of its own, unspeakable horrors play in an endless loop, and for the the few people about to be trapped there, the only way out will be to win the fight against the mistress of Coldheart Canyon -- a former actress of the early 20th century, who's very much alive, powerful and young -- and powered by the secret that lies beneath her dream palace. If you're not afraid of being spooked, especially by the ghosts who will
Snippets.org
If you're a programmer, this may be of interest to you. It's a non-profit, open source kinda thing. Developers post snippets of their code online, for others to make use of. The free code made available can be used for personal or commerical purposes. This is just a site by programmers for programmers. Cool!
Other Discover Articles of Note From the November issue, here are some other articles that was of interest: Appeal of the Rare - the world's largest ball of twine; the world's largest ball of barbed wire; rare things worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; why? Why are humans attracted to the biggest whatever? or the smallest? or the weirdest? Check out this article for some remarkable insights into how and why we perceive things the way we do. Is there a Biological limit to life? - we're growing older and older -- but is there an upper limit to life? Secret Life of Ants - check out the interesting world of ants. And if you're really into ants, check out the Ant Colony site!
Discover Awards 2003 The November 2003 issue of the Discover magazine, fires off the annual awards for innovation in Space Science and Technology. I liked the story of Franklin Chang-Diaz -- here's a boy coming from a third world country to America, and finding the American dream, living it, and going to space as an astronaut. Chang-Diaz is also a NASA physist, working on next generation propulsion systems.
Möbius Forum: Leadership, Values, and Spirituality in Business
From Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge site, here's coverage of a conference they hosted in the spring of 2002. The conference was centred around wellness and leadership in business. The coverage will allow you to take a pause from your day to think a little. Check out the site as well, it's loaded with great content.
Matrix Revolutions I've seen the movie. And I need to see it twice more probably. I've heard quite a few grumblings about the movie. People didn't like it. I loved it. A lot of people will not (have not) like the ending. My first reaction was -- 'is that it?' But then I started thinking about it. I think that's the mark of a good movie. It doesn't give you everything. It leaves something there for the myth to build on -- for the story to continue on. I think Revolutions leaves a rich world, with many potential stories for the future.
The Luddites Yes, that is the correct spelling. The word originates from a 19th century textile workers in England, who rioted because they opposed the automation of their jobs -- today the word refers to anyone who opposes technological change. The Luddites - here's a compact history from England's SchoolNet. From the University of Colorado - more references than you can shake a stick at! A Google Search - OK, go ahead, shake your stick!
Hepatitis C Here's an article in the Economist on the fight against Hepatitis C. The blood disease has 170m victims worldwide, compared to HIV's 42m -- however, because AIDS kills 3m annually, compared 500,000 by the HCV, the alarms aren't the same. Nevertheless, at those numbers, HCV is still an epidemic.
Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful? The print version of this was sent to me by a business colleague - we had this debate a month ago about what's left for North Americans -- what's really left that we can call our own -- in other words, is there a future? He mentioned this article in BusinessWeek. The article takes a critical look at Wal-Mart , and it's policies detrimental effects on suppliers, workers, communities and even the American culture. Wal-Mart's mantra of low prices and it's dominance of the world retail market is unquestioned -- unchallenged. It had revenues topping $245b US last year. It's three times larger than the number two retailer, France's Carrefour . Weekly, over 138 million shoppers flock to it's 4,750 stores. Last year, 82% of Americans made at least one purchase at Wal-Mart. Last year, Wal-Mart was responsible for cutting $100b US from consumer spending, by having everyone march to their low prices. Economists have labeled this
A Map of the Universe Following on the footsteps of Mercator , a group of Astronomers have produced a map of the universe. The map includes objects starting out from our Solar system and the Kuiper belt , to galaxies and quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey . Download it, print it out, and wallpaper your room with it to be cool! The actual map can be found here .
Black Hole Life Preserver D.J. Gott of Princeton University, and Deborah L. Freedman of Harvard University have figured out how to survive a black hole. Well, you'll die anyway, but it will happen so fast, you won't feel a thing. If you fell into a black hole feet first, the force of gravity would crush your sides -- your toes would have a stronger pull on it that your head -- your 'spaghettification' would occur in under 0.1 second. Long enough for the pain signals to arrive in your brain. Gott and Freedman have figured out that all you need is something to slow the 'spaghettification' effect -- long enough so that you die before the pain signals reach your brain. What you need is a girdle -- a life preserver that would pull up on your feet and down on your head, countering the pull of the black hole. The girdle would give you 0.09 second more of life -- long enough. And the girdle in question? Well, it would need to be 12,800 tonnes in mass, and about
arXiv.org Print Archive Grab a six-pack of Jolt. Sit down in front of the computer. Guzzle one back. Surf to the arXiv Print Archive site, and click on something that strikes your fancy (I head for Astrophysics). Pop open another Jolt, and let the information overload begin! The arXiv is a great archive site for science research papers. There isn't enough time to read everything you will find of interest.
Spin on Light This was news to me, when I read it in Scientific American -- about a decade ago, it was discovered that one of the properties of light is that it has orbital angular momentum (OAM) . But not much has been done with the information since -- astronomer Martin Harwit however, thinks that information can be conveyed using the OAM of light -- and perhaps, astronomers should start making observations of OAM. Not only that, but far advanced life could be using that property of light for communication purposes. Down here on Earth, it's actually quite surprising that the OAM property of light hasn't been exploited yet to stuff more information down the fibre optic tunnels that link computers across distances. Today, information is packed in light using the polarization states of a photon to encode a bit at a time -- but if a photon's OAM can be measured accurately, and efficiently, more information can be packed into a photon, as there is potentially an infin
US Defense Dept. to use RFID Looks like WalMart will have company is requiring suppliers to adopt RFID technology. The US Defense Logitics Agency, responsible for sourcing supplies from more that 24,000 suppliers for the DOD, will require those suppliers to use passive, pallet & case RFIDs by January 2005. WalMart's initial push was to have its top 100 suppliers ready by 2006. The DOD is taking an aggressive stance on the technology. Today, the DOD relies on handheld scanners and manual means to confirm receipts.
Barbara Hall
I'm voting for Barbara Hall for Toronto's next mayor -- not because she's a woman, or because she was a mayor of Toronto before -- I'm voting for Barbara Hall for what she isn't. Barbara Hall isn't a politician. She's genuine. She's a person. The other candidates are politicians, and therefore nothing more than the scum of the earth.
Welchia I read about this in the latest issue of Scientific American , on my flight to Washington, DC. I had previously heard of the results of this worm -- but hadn't heard it's name. It was released into the wild just after the Blaster worm and the Sobig.F virus -- so while the world was busily making Blaster and Sobig.F celebrities, Welchia slipped quietly into systems. Blaster and Sobig.F were a pain. They brought down computers, affected networks and made themselves known. Welchia on the other hand, slipped in quietly and had a few profound purposes in life: it forces the host computer to contact Microsoft's Windows Update website and download a patch for the very hole it exploits (incidentally, the Blaster worm also exploits the same hole) it scans the host computer for the Blaster worm and removes it it scans the local network, and attempts to procreate It contains code that will delete itself on January 1, 2004 It installs a small file transfer server o
Cecilia Zhang
... or Cece, as her mother affectionally calls her -- is 9 years old, loves animals -- has two cats, Happy and Lucky -- loves fishing and playing tennis -- loves science. It has been over a week since she was kidnapped from her bedroom. The police has scoured the neighbourhood, appealed to the public -- a blitz has been made with her photo across Toronto. Last Monday, when I was driving to work, I saw a number of police vehicles, horse trailers, etc., parked on Don Mills Road, not far from McNicol. The police did non-stop searches for a couple of days after the little girl disappeared. Volunteers came out. Helicopters were used. Nothing. Yesterday, Cecilia's parents spoke to the media for the first time. Cecilia's dad cried -- a big thing for a Chinese man -- and appealed to the kidnapper(s) to return his daughter. Cecilia's mom spoke to Cecilia. It's been nine days since her disappearance -- chances of Cecilia being found alive are slim. It
Dream Job
Here's a little bit of inspiration for those of you who find themselves in a daily grind - it's an article from the Globe and Mail, and was sent to me by a friend (thanks for this one too Naj). What exactly makes some people love their job, while others hate the jobs they find themselves in? The article contends that some of us see our jobs as the end - the final goal in life; while others see their jobs as a means to the end - only a stop along the way of achieving that final goal in life. Personally, I love my job. Yes, it's damn frustrating at times, and hard, and time consuming, allowing me to do little of the other things I want, but I don't see it as the end of everything I'm going to be doing in life. Neither do I see it as the most important part of my life. It's a means - an important means - but I can be replaced, and so can the job. Family, friends, the impact I have (however little) on the world - the way I will be remembered - tha
The Wal-Mart Economy
Here's a Toronto Star article forwarded to me by friend (thanks Naj). We've seen the newscasts featuring many small towns pleading for a Wal-Mart store to be opened in their area, but what are the real effects of Wal-Mart on the economy, and on society as a whole? This article contends that they're pretty bad for the economy and society. It's a bit slanted towards the left, and demonizes Wal-Mart, and while all of the negative press may not be warranted, there is some truth to it to what the article speaks to. I know from a business perspective, Wal-Mart is noted for its bullying tactics when dealing with suppliers. You either do things their way, or you're out of business - sometimes you're damn either way. Read however, and make up your mind on your own.
Alternative Media Blogs, blogs, blogs. Blogs are so mainstream now. There are photo blogs, audio blogs and other media blogs. Nevertheless, the overwhelming documentation of every nook and cranny of the world is worth it in some cases - check out this article from Wired Online, about the use of the internet, and grassroots media to document atrocities around the world. In many cases, the people doing the documenting are taking a risk. If caught by the people they're capturing on video or camera, they could be killed. Kinda puts my little online presence to shame when I think about the people out there making a difference with theirs.
New Zealand Moms Against Genetic Engineering OK, the only reason I'm posting this is because of the the ad campaign. Kiwi moms are ... well ... you make up your own mind, but four breasted women ads? They're protesting New Zealand's government decision to overturn a ban against genetic engineering. The lift on the ban would allow GM foods to be sold across the counter to the public.
Family I picked up a copy of the National Post Saturday edition for my daughter, cause she needed the inserted Saturday Night magazine for something for school. I browsed it and found this amusing article on ISO certification: "Are We Certifiable?" by Peter Carter. It's about certifying your family (no - not that way) ... about standardization. From that, to another newspaper article: "For the kids, it's cool," in the Saturday edition of the Toronto Star. The article is about children in gay and lesbian families - the parents are same-sex. While the kids are OK with it, and the parents are OK with it, others seem to have big problems with it. People don't seem to realize that good or bad parents come down to the individuals involved. It says something about people willing to take on the challenge of raising kids and choosing to do so, instead of the many 'accidental' parents there are out there.
Office 2003 From eWeek Magazine, a first look at Microsoft's new office release. It's not a surprise - eWeek isn't jumping up and down to sing the praises of the new Office release. Since Office 97, there hasn't been a real pressing need for businesses to upgrade. Most users hardly use most of the functionality of Office 97, so why bother with the incremental offerings in the subsequent versions. Well, as a user of Office XP, I know the newer versions make it easier to do a lot of common tasks - however, for a business, I don't think you can really find a pressing need to go to Office 2003, unless you implement some of Microsoft's backend server offerings to take advantage of the new features of Office 2003. Then there is WordPerfect and StarOffice ... both good alternatives.
Titan's Lakes There's mounting evidence that Titan, a moon of Saturn that is targeted to be visited by the Huygens probe flying onboard the Cassini spacecraft, has lakes of liquid hydrocarbons. Huygens is targeted to touch down on Titan in 2005. A recent study used radar to penetrate Titan's smog filled atmosphere, and bounce images back to Earth. The results were indicative of liquid. Check out the article from Space.com.
China in Space China has done it, and it was a great story to follow. If you read the accounts coming out of China, you know that everything is carefully orchestrated. The country will look good. The government will look good. The military will look good. It's also interesting to read the American media reporting on the feat . They're almost grudging in their reports, acting like a cool kid who just witnessed someone else doing something cool, and is having troubles acknowledging it. Read the CNN reports ... they can't even acknowledge that China calls their astronauts, taikonauts (the Russians have had cosmonauts since the beginning) ... CNN refers to them as the "so called taikonauts." Regardless, as NASA said, it's a great achievement in space exploration.
Gravity From Discover Magazine, here's a great article all about gravity and how little we really do know. We've always thought gravity ended with Einstein. Everything kinda worked, and made sense. Or did it? We've had to invent dark matter, and other very interesting things to fill our universe to explain away observations. But what if we didn't really get gravity right in the first place? What if on really large scales, gravity acted ... well, not like we expected? What then? Well, this article collects some of the more interesting ideas. Check it out!
PLOS Biology Finally! If you've ever tried to find journal articles on the net, you've realized fairly quickly that unless you have thousands of dollars to spare, or belong to some institution that can afford a subscription, you're SOL. Well, a group of scientist are kinda sick of the journals dictating how science information can be disseminated - sick of the control over research that journals have - and they've created the Public Library of Science Biology (and will soon launch PLOS Medicine). Cool! Articles are available free of charge and in online or PDF formats. Information overload here I come!
CD Copying From CNN.com: a student who posted a paper on how to defeat a CD copy protection mechanism (by just pressing the shift key when the CD tray is closing) is being sued by the software maker. Let's see how this works ... someone releases information on the weakness of a piece of software and they're being sued for it? This shouldn't last a second in court. What's disturing here is that the way the protection mechanism works is by loading a driver file from the music CD as soon as it's inserted into the drive. Hmm ... someone should sue the software maker for not disclosing to end users that they're loading software on their computer.
Canada didn't go to war I read the cover article in this Saturday's Toronto Star, and was pretty pissed. It's not often that I get motivated to write a response to an article in the newspapers. But I found the article anti-US, very much misleading - which was done purposely. The article is about Canada's industrial participation in the US military machine, and hence our industry support of the war in Iraq. The article starts out by trying to convince the reader that what is to follow is a serious article that uses data to support a point of view - what it actually does however, is uses data to purposely mislead the reader. Let's start with figures - as the article uses a lot of them. The subtitle on the front page article is, "Star analyzes deals from 1997-2002 Defence contracts with U.S. top $1.8B." The article then says that there is billions hidden under sub-contracts as well. It goes on to present data in a table that says Canada has an estima
Underwater Windmill Here's a novel idea - stick a windmill underwater and let the tides, driven by the moon, spin the blades, turn the turbine and produce electricity. It's a project currently being prototyped in Norway, and produces electricity that's being fed into the power grid. The power generated is enough to power about 70 US homes (or 35 Norwegian). Cool!
Universe is Finite, Soccer Ball Shaped Well, another group, another claim ... and I'm planning on not getting too excited about this one. After all, it has been going back and forth for a number of years now. It does make an interesting read though. Jeffrey Weeks (a genius) and researchers from the University of Paris have, through observations using NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, have found evidence that the universe is dodecahedral shaped, and finite (but what is outside it ...). They've published their findings in Nature.