blogs

Wikipedia Germany "shut down"

This post is a copy (with minor editing) of an email I recieved from the Cyberlaw list it was posted by Robert Heverly at the University of East Anglia.

The main page of the German Wikipedia has a polite notice indicating it has essentially been shut down by court order. It turns out that the dispute is centered around a wikipedia entry about a hacker called “Tron.” The main page with the notice (in German) is here: http://www.wikipedia.de (google translation here).The German language version of the U.S. Wikipedia is still online with the same information here. The article in question can be read in German here and in English here. There are also two short news reports here & here.

I can’t seem to figure out what the actual cause of action was, or what the actual effect of the order was (which seems to be something about not redirecting people to the German wiki using www.wikipedia.de), but I’m still looking through newspapers about it; if anyone has any better insight, I’d be keen to hear it.

Posted on by mklang

iTunes Spyware

Apple updated to iTunes 6.0.2 and states that the update “includes stability and performance improvements over iTunes 6.0.1.”

But Apple didnt bother to mention that the update comes with a default spyware provision. The iTunes MiniStore watches what you click on in iTunes and sends that information across the Web to a remote server. Source since1968.com

The MiniStore can be easily disabledâ??just hit Shift-Command-M, or choose Edit: Hide MiniStore, and itâ??s gone. Once hidden, no more data is transmitted…Disable the MiniStore, and your private listening habits will stay just thatâ??private. (MacWorld)

The purpose of sending the information is to be able to recommend new stuff but this is still not a good excuse to make the spyware a default.

Posted on by mklang

Another strange patent

There are too many stupid patents to put on this blog without turning it into blog specialising in stupid patents. If you want such a blog then read Intellectual Property Humor. But still I could not resist posting this patent.

Here is the patent abstract:

Pants convertible into a hammock comprise a pair of pant legs separable by unfastening front and back fasteners extending from the waist to crotch of the pant legs, each pant leg openable to a flat formation by unfastening an inseam fastener, the opened pant legs convertible into a hammock configuration by abutting and fastening together bottom edges of the pant legs, wherein the hammock pants may be suspended from an adjacent structure by inserting a pair of rigid rods into sleeves provided at the waist portion of the pant legs in the hammock configuration, and by unfolding a plurality of straps attached to the inside surfaces of the pant legs and extending the straps from the ends of the rigid rods to anchor points on the adjacent structure.

I mean wow! What can you say about patent nr 6,698,029? If things like this dont prove patent law is totally messed up then I dont know what does.

Posted on by mklang

Bodströmsamhället

P O �gren har skrivit en snyggt inlägg (16/12-2005) om den nya förslaget om datalagring som EU-parlamentet röstat ja till. Förslaget innebär att alla EU-länders IT- och teleoperatörer måste lagra alla trafikuppgifter i sex till 24 månader. Alla uppgifter om din kommunikation via telefon eller dator kommer att lagras.

Ã?gren skriver “Det finns mÃ¥nga problem med detta beslut till direktiv. Jag nöjer mig med att resonera kring tre.” Sedan lägger han fram tre huvudomrÃ¥den: (1) För det första är det integritetskränkande. (2) För det andra är risken för ändamÃ¥lsglidning uppenbar. (3) För det tredje är det ett irreversibelt beslut.

Läs hela inlägget här

Posted on by mklang

The DeadLine, or this is not a vida

To those of you who read this blog, friends (do friends read friends blogs?), as you may know the realest* of all my deadlines is fast approaching. At this stage I am disinclined to follow the thoughts of the sage “I love deadlines. I especially love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by”** and attempt to manage the impossible (hitting deadline) if only to get the damn thing*** over and done with. This first hurdle of all hurdles is not the vida but the internal seminar were the wise ancients of the Dept of Informatics (there is no place like home) climb down from their mountain-tops to throw lightening-bolts, murmer incantations and generally discuss the suitability of the dullard attempting to pass through the gates which they are set to keep. Therefore I am left to arrange my defence and attempt to explain myself. All that remains are the words “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”****

And it didnt take me 20 years even though some of you may have thought so…

the blind bard
the blind bard

THEN Ulysses tore off his rags, and sprang on to the broad pavement with his bow and his quiver full of arrows. He shed the arrows on to the ground at his feet and said, “The mighty contest is at an end. I will now see whether Apollo will vouchsafe it to me to hit another mark which no man has yet hit.” On this he aimed a deadly arrow at Antinous, who was about to take up a two-handled gold cup to drink his wine and already had it in his hands. He had no thought of death- who amongst all the revellers would think that one man, however brave, would stand alone among so many and kill him? The arrow struck Antinous in the throat, and the point went clean through his neck, so that he fell over and the cup dropped from his hand, while a thick stream of blood gushed from his nostrils.*****

————–
* Social Constructivists among you would dispute this but even the most active social constructivists tend to agree that deadlines exist and follow them – why is that? Wouldnt a real conference on social constructivism really be a a group of people not submitting on time, another group not following the compulsory paper format and eventually at the conference no groups turning up?
** Douglas Adams, who else?
*** Phd…if you didnt know this you have not been paying attention.
**** Douglas Adams, who did you think?
***** Odyssey Book 22 Samuel Butler (trans.) A funny illustrated story version here.

Posted on by mklang

Blogging revisited

In a previous entry I reported reasons why a blogger (especially academic) should blog. Naturally these views are not unanimous. Here is an anonymous submission to the Chronicle of Higher Education signed by the pseudonym Ivan Tribble. Remember the Tribbles from original star trek fame? Small furry, soft, gentle animals whose cute appearance and soothing purring endears them to every sentient race which encounters themâ??with one notable exception: Klingons.

Anyway Ivan Tribble writes about blogs:

â??The pertinent question for bloggers is simply, Why? What is the purpose of broadcasting one’s unfiltered thoughts to the whole wired world? It’s not hard to imagine legitimate, constructive applications for such a forum. But it’s also not hard to find examples of the worst kinds of uses.

A blog easily becomes a therapeutic outlet, a place to vent petty gripes and frustrations stemming from congested traffic, rude sales clerks, or unpleasant national news. It becomes an open diary or confessional booth, where inward thoughts are publicly aired.

Worst of all, for professional academics, it’s a publishing medium with no vetting process, no review board, and no editor. The author is the sole judge of what constitutes publishable material, and the medium allows for instantaneous distribution. After wrapping up a juicy rant at 3 a.m., it only takes a few clicks to put it into global circulation.â??

The more positive approach to blogging mentioned above (Alex Soojung-Kim Pangâ??s If you’ve got a day job…) focused on four reasons to blog: Practice of the skill of writing, gain readers fame & credibility, participate in a discourse and finally market yourself. All these four are important to the academic (and to the blogger).

Tribbleâ??s argument against the blog concern the situation where you are a job applicant and the stuff which you have written online can be used against you. Both when the committee looked at the applicants online appearance â??…it turned out to be every bit as eye-opening as a train wreck.â?? Another aspect which causes blogging concern is the very existence of the blog… â??Several committee members expressed concern that a blogger who joined our staff might air departmental dirty laundry (real or imagined) on the cyber clothesline for the world to see. Past good behavior is no guarantee against future lapses of professional decorum.â??

tribble
Captain Kirk with Tribbles

So basically the blog is like the Tribble – cute, furry and soothing to all (except the Klingons) but remember the problem with Tribbles? The crew of the Starship Enterprise spent so much time cuddling with, and being cuddled by, the Tribbles that they no longer functioned as a crew. In a sense the blog can become like Tribbles. Surrounded by both our own and others we exist in a quasi world of our own creation which is not a bad thing unless we replace the â??realâ?? world with the blogged one.

Posted on by mklang

Wow deadline!

Remember what was it Douglas Adams said about deadlines? “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by” Unfortunately I can’t be as casual… My next deadline is a book chapter by Friday. I just handed in a draft of part of my thesis on Sunday – quick change: different focus different langauage… Lifes imitates blogs.

Here is the first paragraph

    Att vara människa är att delta i en komplex social interaktion men vi lever våra liv genom att delta i samhället inte genom att reflektera över den. Förtroende och tillit är så grundläggande beståndsdelar i våra liv att vi endast lägger märke till dem när systemfel inträffar. Att ta bussen till jobbet är en banal upplevelse inte sällan förknippad med tristess. Men för att vi ska kunna sitta där och uppleva tristessen krävs lager på lager av tillit till en mängd olika system. Vi utgår att bussbolaget har anlitat en förare som kan köra, är ansvarsfull, att bussen fungerar, att alla andra bilar i trafiken även denna dag tänker följa reglerna, att våra pengar kommer accepteras, att de andra på bussen följer god buss sed� Att som människa inte vara tillitsfull skulle vara ohållbart. Den tid vi sparar på att vara tillitsfulla gör att vi kan leva våra liv. Vår tillit har blivit en vana, vi reagerar nu endast om system inte fungerar. Vi blir irriterade när bussen inte följer tidtabellen eftersom vi har en förväntan att tidtabellen stämmer.

Posted on by mklang

Red Herring Blog: If you've got a day job…

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang argues that there are 4 reasons why academics should blog!

Excerpt:

The virtual subway. For journalists and writers, blogs are a place to practice and refine their craft. As Rainer Maria Rilke put it, writers don’t write because they want to; they write because they can’t imagine doing anything else. For writers, blogs are to publishing as speed chess is to a formal tournament: the same basic game, but faster, edgier, and rougher in an interesting way. To invoke another metaphor, for many writers blogs are less like op-ed columns than virtual subways, a place to play for a couple hours and maybe pick up a little extra money.

Credibility = transparency. Some professionals who blog have realized that the very fact that they’re blogging will impress readers. If you’re willing to be so open about what you do, the logic goes, you must be good. And it’s not bad reasoning. We all know that jargon and obscurity are crutches for marginal performers, and that professional poses can obscure as much as they assure. Transparency, on the other hand, is easy to understand, and easy to trust.

New court, old game. Then there are professionals– academics and scientists, most notably– for whom blogging is a natural extension of what they already do: network, cite each other, and argue. There are a number of high-energy physicists, string theorists, and cosmologists who are bloggers; they all seem to post extensively on each other’s blogs, taking online arguments they’ve been having for years, or that start at a conference or colloquium and just jump to cyberspace. Charles Darwin called his Origin of Species “one long argument;” the same phrase could apply to most science. Blogs turn out to be hot-houses for disputation. If e-mail encouraged flame wars, blogs encourage intellectual feuds– which figure prominently in academic life.

The brand of me. Finally, some use blogs to build their personal brand: to widen the reach of their ideas, to increase name familiarity, whatever you want to call it.

Red Herring Blog: If you’ve got a day job…
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Posted on by mklang