News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine. 250 easily preventable deaths per day!
Leo Robert Ford: Web Design and Sin
"When we go to a web guru we don't want to hear that the world is complicated and full of contradictions, we want to hear what it takes to make our web site a success, and if it takes ten steps instead of ten thousand, so much the better. Thus we naturally gravitate to those with a simpler message, if for no better reason than we are beginners and looking for a place to start."
Funny thing, that. I had a conversation today about the difference between following rules and engaging with a friend today that was very similar to the last paragraph of Ford's essay.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine. Still bombing!
Lurking in sci.environment, I caught a brief glimpse of the essence of USENET debates. It is reproduced here for your perusal:
>Which is not what I have said.
It's exactly what you said.
Is Slashdot implementing context-sensitive banner ads? (It's ironic. Laugh.)
a self portrait of sorts:
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Look at all the different Flame Warriors.
Tom Jay: Ecology and Economy
The Storyteller's bowl is an interesting profit model for online content.
In the old days, a storyteller would come to a market-day, offer the start of a story, and then wait until his bowl was full before finishing the story. Sometimes a rich man paid for a story, so others could hear. Sometimes everyone in the crowd tossed in whatever coin they could afford.
Seems like a good idea, but the main barrier to its use is that the 'storyteller' has to be in demand such that people will pay. It could certainly work well for some applications, though.
Heard on #mf:
kendall: everytime I read a WSJ editorial, I think: goddamn, if that's how slow-witted you can be as a WSJ editor, I could do that as a part-time, on-the-toilet gig, and have time left to run the NYT.
Michael Stutz pointed me to the Free Music Philosophy manifesto after reading yesterday's rant
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Why vote green? This pamphlet makes it pretty clear.
A king and bok choy
sing loud anthems
of grace and acacia.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Yet more proof that record companies are evil. Or just capitalistic, take your pick.
Mouse Trapped, an article from Law.com about the changing face of copyright (via CC. The current reasoning: the only purpose of copyright laws is to create more (financial) incentives for authors et al to churn out material, so any increase in the control over the work (and how it gets paid for) is an incentive to create more content goodness.
The irony, of course, is that corporations are simultaneously lobbying to have artists' work be considered a 'work for hire', so that the incentives go directly to the people who control the distribution channels, not those that are responsible for the actual content.
It seems there is a growing rift between two sides: The first is characterized by the net and open source, where content that is created gets distributed as widely as there is interest, and there is little or no payment or control over the work.
The second is every other corporate medium (software, music, books, magazines), where distribution is controlled in various ways by institutions that wants to make money.
One is strengthening its control over what it does, while the other is contantly finding ways to de-emphasize control and payment.
I've long wondered what will eventually happen; it seems unlikely that both models will continue existing independently from each other, yet it doesn't seem plausible that one will kill the other off. So what will happen?
When I wrote Rethinking Micropayments, I thought that creating revenue while not asserting total control might be one component of a way of eventually resolving these two opposing forces. However, as they drift farther apart, I have more trouble seeing how they will ever come together.
It occurs to me that looking at analagous historical examples might be a way of better understanding how things will eventually resolve, but none come to mind. Any suggestions?
Nice site. Keep up the good work.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
I went and saw the Planet Smashers (a very cool ska band from Montreal) play a free show in Moncton this evening. Outdoor venue, lots of good vibes, and amazing tunes made for probably the best way I've spent an evening all summer. I'm pretty sure I didn't stop skankin' (dancing) the whole time they were playing. Wooooooooo!
Their site (which is all in French) has MP3's. 'Life of the Party' and 'Surfin Tefino' are two of their most lively and ska-ish. Go check it out.
Ah, the Ska FAQ.
You know you're doing the right google search when you end up at ZootSuitStore.com.
Another photo from evening bike rides:
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
As always, I've been putting a fair bit of energy into BlueGreen, so go check it out. (No pun intended)
The US and Britain have bombed Iraq every three days for the past 18 months.
Ftrain has some very interesting thoughts on weblog forms. This relates to an article I'm writing now about forms on the web, but it's different enough that I'll keep working on it.
I've been taking long bikerides out into the Tantramar countryside in the evenings recently, and took a few photos (more later):
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Monkeyfist's DiaWeblog (Diablog?) 'Daily Churn' page is hoppin'.
Sylvia has a weblog of visual art.
Stefan's stream of consciousness rant is interesting. I think he's been reading about quantum physics too much (or not enough!).
Roger Waters is touring. I didn't know that. He's playing in Madison Square Garden the day before I arrive in New York, but the tickets sold out in 40 minutes anyway. Nuts.
There is a webcast of the new Pink Floyd: The Wall Live, punctured by ads and interviews. Heh. I just heard a US Army commercial a few minutes after 'Good Bye Blue Sky'. The irony was just sickening.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
I got a voluntary micropayment from MetaGrrrl today. An there's a thread on the subject at Metafilter.
I was planning on having this be one of my summer projects, to spread the idea of voluntary micropayments, and try to help it evolve, but it looks like other people have already started doing this. How utterly and completely cool.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
I'm listening to various Bossa Nova artists on MP3.com today. This stuff is quite groovin.
A little late for father's day, a picture of my Dad showed up online. This is interesting, as he more or less avoids computers like the plague. Despite it all, he also had an article in NetFuture a while back.
Wow, now that I do a google search, there's a bunch of stuff: a page about my parents' art, with a tour of their gallery. There is also a page for his Salmon Woman and Raven sculpture, which he worked on for about three years straight.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Murder Suspect To Be Tried By Media: Overworked Justice System Grateful For Help
Bungie to be bought by Microsoft?? Methinks it's some kind of joke, but who knows? AFAIK, Microsoft doesn't develop games in-house, it just markets them, so the bit about the Bungie guys moving to Redmond doesn't make sense. Who knows? [ack, looks like it's true]
For the first time in quite a while, I've managed to go two days without updating misnomer. Actually, I've been pretty good at avoiding the computer altogether these past few days.
Bijan noted that an article he wrote about light pollution is relevant to my offline-ness this weekend. Of course by now, I'm completely re-glued to the screen, thanks to my job redesigning/fixing this site (no, that's not my design).
Monkeyfist now has Daily Churn. Bijan (he's everywhere!) rigged up a nifty IRC bot that stores every URL, and lets people who hang out in #mf (irc: monkeyfist.com:6667) to append comments to each one. Lots of URLs pass through there every day. Tres cool.
Feminist Media Watch looks potentially interesting.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Bijan Parsia has some interesting ruminations on political correctness and offense.
I took a few days off from misnomer. Apparently, I've been missed.
I'm not usually a big fan of Courtney Love, but this is right on: "Right now the only way you can get music is by shelling out $17. In a world where music costs a nickel, an artist can 'sell' 100 million copies instead of just a million."
If you read nothing else, read this speech. It details everything about the music industry I've suspected, but never bothered to confirm.
One very important fact: the vast majority of musicians don't make a living wage, even if they sell millions of albums. I'd love to hear any exceptions to this reality, but I fear it's even worse.
Via Camworld, Scott McCloud's online graphic column. Very cool use of the web.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Kendall Clark: The Political Economy of Terrorism (public draft). A very thorough critique of the The National Commission on Terrorism's report and reccomendations.
I've started using Usenet again recently, and am quickly discovering that there is much value left in it, in the form of smart people with time to explain things, mostly.
The following links are graciously borrowed from today's Davenetics:
Real and Apple Team Up. It's a Good Thing.
RIAA Sez: "Napster teaches a generation of music consumers that artists do not deserve to be paid for their work, and their creative efforts are free for the taking." Hahahahahahahaha! Exactly how much of the net profit of CD sales do artists get? I'm just curious. As I recall, The Problem with Music sums up the story of the generation of corporations that believe that artists should be paid very little for their work quite well.
Fortune has picked a bunch of startups it thinks will do good things in the future. Some interesting companies on the list.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Affordances and Constraints of Electronic Discussion:
"...written discussion itself is a contradiction in terms. In this view, the physical and oral situation around an oral, face-to-face conversation -- the facilitative mechanisms like expectant silences, visual cues for turn-taking, the pressure of occasion -- are necessary to keep any extended dialogic exchange going, and that without them, any written discussion that is not driven by a specific and immediate necessity like a shared task will simply evaporate."
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Writing in Electronic text: links has been updated.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Beginning and ending a hyperbook: Possibilities for authors.
Understanding Hypertext. A big list of links.
Millicent, a company working on making effective micropayment software, has changed their site a bit, but the demonstration pages are still 'under development'. I was told that their software would be available in early June, but just to be safe, I'm going to expect to wait til August.
SuperDistribution "is an internet based services company that monitors, tracks, reports and disburses for usage of digital property such as software by treating software's ease of replication as an asset instead of a liability."
Interesting article: Utopian Plagiarism 101. It looks like the document is being used in part to teach a course at CSU San Marcos. Each class edits and improves the article collaboratively. Very cool.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
It's as much news today as it was yesterday.
BTW, this isn't just about Iraq, it's also about how the media treats 'news'. If the same thing goes on constantly, then it's not news. At least, not according to them.
The Guardian has a page of Iraq news. (from Ola)
Interview with Neal Stephenson.
I've been sweating over yet another revision of Dialogs and Documents. I'm starting to be happy with it, which is a good sign, I think.
Nice site. Keep up the good work.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine. According to UNICEF, 250 people die each day as a result of the sanctions.
Opinion: this is bloody well unnaceptable.
Thanks to Ola for the link. I'd like to have an Iraq-related link per day. If you have any, send em in.
Aha...come to see the literary master?
I wrote a piece on Academic publishing online for Bluegreen today.
The Pogues do a great musical version of Rimbaud's Drunken Boat (Bateau Ivre).
My roommate just suggested that I write a 300,000 word essay entitled 'the Human Situation'. hmmm.
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
Dru Jay: Mcluhan's Message Clarified
Bijan Parsia posted an enlightening explanation of why academics don't publish online.
Tom Jay: Reinhabiting the Commons
News: The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today, using bombs and famine.
WriteTheWeb.com is live.
I'm back from the conference, so updates should be more regular.
BlueGreen is starting to get some new contributors, even my Dad the luddite is going to write some essays for it.
Running Blue Green for the past month has been the means to my personal environmental education, as it motivated me to read the news with a little more depth than I usually would.
My koan for the day: Writing about something makes you think about it, which is a good thing.
Primary sources are hardly ever available online. Another reason for academics to be less stubborn about publishing online.
sex anal
John Perry Barlow says:
Also, from an economic standpoint, many musicians have discovered, as the Grateful Dead did, that the best way to make money from music is to give it away. While scarcity may increase the value of physical goods, such as CD's, the opposite applies to information. In a dematerialized information economy, there is an equally strong relationship between familiarity and value. If your work is good, allowing what you've done to self-replicate freely increases demand for what you haven't done yet, whether by live performances or by charging online for the download of new work. "
Or maybe by paying after you know you like it.
Very good site, i like it :)