“When lawmakers and companies fight spam, they’re not up against teenage hobbyists and pranksters. They face thousands of pros like Shiels, who have high-tech tools and an immense network of knowledge that is difficult to overcome.” Jeffrey Kosseff —Confessions of a Former SpammerOregon Live) Similar:Ringling Bros. circus to close after 146 yearsThe more I learned…
“Every once in a while, in order to remind myself of the quality of information typically reported, I trace down the source of a particularly ridiculous story. The ‘Klingon Language Interpreter’ myth, which is spawning now, provides an amusing case study of the process of pack journalism.” Seth Finklestein —Klingon Language Interpreter Story DebunkedKuro5hin) See…
“grandtextauto is about computer mediated and computer generated works of many forms, including interactive fiction, net.art, electronic poetry, interactive drama, hypertext fiction, computer games of all sorts, and shared virtual environments. The discussion, by people who all work as both theorists and developers in these forms, considers questions of authorship, design, and technology, as well…
“But I still feel sorry for Blair Hornstine. Because all the hard work and courage it took to get where she is will forever be eclipsed by what she’s come to represent: A system that’s gone so far to level the playing field that it’s created a culture of entitlement instead of gratitude.|A society that…
“His tools of deceit were a cellphone and a laptop computer — which allowed him to blur his true whereabouts — as well as round-the-clock access to databases of news articles from which he stole.” —Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of DeceptionNY Times) Jayson Blair demonstrated talent that many junior high schoolers are…
“Google is to create a search tool specifically for weblogs, most likely giving material generated by the self-publishing tools its own tab….” Andrew Orlowski trolls bloggers by taking a tidbit from a Reuters article from last Monday and gleefully spinning another anti-weblogging story. —Register to Fix Orlowski Noise Problem? (Register) Under the subheading “Unearned Reputations,”…
“After many painful review meetings, and hearing advice from seasoned designers, I learned the right way to present ideas – you have to show the other candidates in order to help support the good ones. I began the habit of presenting three to seven different ideas, culling from my total set of ideas the ones…
“Western medicine is a war against disease, and the immune response is the first line of defence…. A world of molecules and cells becomes a battlefield, complete with alerts, invaders, recruitment and mobilisation, search-and-destroy missions and natural-born killers…. Medical school textbooks and immunologists’ research papers are imbued with the same ideas. They are so central…
“Six key factors have led to children watching less Saturday morning cartoons: more recreational sports, the introduction of cable and satellite TV, the Internet and video games, a poorer quality of animation, and a greater emphasis on family time.” *Gerard Raiti* —The Disappearance of Saturday Morning (Animation World Magazine) An excellent paper, written by an undergraduate…
“Police found another away message on Lucien’s account on March 20 that also said he could provide alcohol. Part of the text of the message read: ‘U wanna drink?… U tell me what u want, gimme the cash, and I’ll get you the bottles like lickety split, yo.’ The message included his room number, police…
“The reporter interviewed someone from ‘fedayeen saddam’ he said that he is in Mosul to ‘kill the Americans and kill anybody who does not fight the Americans’, there in one short sentence you have the whole situation in Basra, and most probably many Iraqi cities, explained.” Salaam Pax is back, with a backlog of blogs…
“Writing requires quiet and reflection, and that’s something that quite scares most people anymore. They’ll do almost anything to avoid being alone with their own thoughts. | It also takes a familiarity, a facility, with the written language which many people lack because they’ve never learned to read very well, if at all…. I’ve had…
“Myst is not a novel or a feature film, it is instead a different sort of creation whose nearest non-electronic relative may be diorama. Any approach to this work must take account of this fundamental difference from familiar forms. World matters more here than characters or conflict, and in Myst the world is suffused with,…
“No doubt the English language, which survived “groovy,” is sturdy enough to withstand this. | But are the kids? | If they don’t learn how to use the written word to communicate the kind of complex concepts that the colonists wanted to convey to King George, they may well find themselves speechless when the course…
“I was in an ideal location at an observatory in Hampshire, England, where in the pale light of the pre-dawn, I gathered with a few other enthusiasts to watch the event. | A transit of Mercury is a rare thing. These days it is of no great scientific importance, but it is fascinating to watch…
“Okay, now the big question: Do we turn this student in? (has anyone already?) I think the idea of having your work reviewed by a large viewing public is cool, especially if it helps enforce better scholarly standards. That is one thing no one ever mentions when they talk about online journals–the ease with which…
“Infogrames bought the right to the Atari name when it bought toy maker Hasbro’s Hasbro Interactive division. Hasbro got it from JTS in 1998. JTS, in turn, bought Atari in 1996. Before then, Atari had many owners, including AOL Time Warner, known as Warner Communications back then. Warner bought Atari in the early 1980s, splitting…
“I suppose from my perspective I don’t really care what people think. If I say it’s not fiction, then that’s just part of the hoax. If I say it is, I’m just covering up to stay safe (both of these possibilities have been suggested). If I don’t give details it’s because this is an elaborate…
“Hackers write cool software, and then write a paper about it, and the paper becomes a proxy for the achievement represented by the software. But often this mismatch causes problems. It’s easy to drift away from building beautiful things toward building ugly things that make more suitable subjects for research papers. | Unfortunately, beautiful things…
“Hannas draws on a raft of data about Asian scientific research practices, technology piracy and graduate study abroad, all intended to show that Asians are brilliant imitators but poor innovators, adept at borrowing and improving on Western science but not so skilled at making advances themselves…. he cites a Japanese Nobel laureate in medicine, Susumu…