soft-core
« Previous EntriesMystery & Wonder
Sunday, November 6th, 2011According to Andrew Sullivan, Alexis Madrigal claims that flocking behaviour is “… a beautiful phenomenon to behold. And neither biologists nor anyone else can yet explain how starlings seem to process information and act on it so quickly.” That second sentence is just false, as even a quick visit to wikipedia is sufficient to discover: [...]
Warring Stories
Sunday, August 7th, 2011[Note: Tim Bray is conducting an interesting exercise in public debate over on Google+, testing its commenting capabilities to see how it fares in civil discourse on contentious political topics. His efforts are well worth following. I'm re-posting one of my comments below for posterity - as much for my own benefit as anyone else's.] [...]
On Pseudonymity
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011My friend Skud (yes, Skud) recently had her Google+ account suspended, apparently for not using her ‘real’ name. The section of Google’s privacy policy dealing with the issue of names says only this: To help fight spam and prevent fake profiles, use the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you. For example, if [...]
Vanuatu Applauds Call for ‘Government Intelligence’
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011[Originally published on sathed.vu - Vanuatu's Satire website] Police Commissioner Joshua Bong’s call for improved government intelligence was roundly supported by all sectors of Vanuatu Society. The announcement, made at the closing of a recent security conference, met with enthusiastic responses from everyone this writer interviewed. A survey of 100 people asking the question ‘Do [...]
The Wealthy Programmer
Sunday, March 27th, 2011In discussion today about programming for money – as opposed to programming for the love of it, or helping to change the shape of modern technology – someone made the following point: I’d have thought striving to be independently wealthy would be an admirable goal – it’s a lot easier to be a philanthropist when [...]
Infowar – A Case Study
Friday, February 4th, 2011[This weekend's Opinion column in the Daily Post] The recent decision by the Mubarak regime in Egypt to cut off all Internet access for its citizens is a textbook example of using a silver bullet to shoot oneself in the foot. The whys and wherefores of how they’ve gone about doing so provide a useful [...]
My Privacy, Your Secrecy
Monday, December 27th, 2010There is a new, defining conflict in the world. Technology’s assault on secrecy will succeed just as surely as it has on our privacy. There are only two ways to come to terms with Wikileaks and its successors: Repression or negotiation.
"Journalism"
Sunday, December 12th, 2010I’m not arguing that complete access to all information is the only true form of journalism. I’m suggesting that making a distinction between WikiLeaks and ‘journalism’ as we understand the word does not describe the process; it describes the actors.
Open Source Diplomacy
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010The commoditisation of information proceeds apace, and although the stakes are perceived to be higher in this case, the effects will probably be similar in nature. A fractious dialectic is already emerging between those who truly believe in the benefits of information resources like those circulated to millions of US military and government staffers on SIPRNET, and those who seek to leverage proprietary knowledge for their country’s -and sometimes their own- gain.
All secrets are like kindling. Used at the right time, gossip can provide warmth, build allegiance and influence. Used rashly, well… you know where this is heading. In that sense, wikileaks may seem like a 10 year old boy with a stolen box of matches. But applied judiciously and with a sober sense of timing, the same principles of near-complete openness and sharing that are at the heart of free software development (and the Internet itself) could usefully animate international diplomacy.
Blogging for Dollars
Sunday, November 14th, 2010Over at the Wired Epicenter blog, people are speculating that Next Monday’s big announcement from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg will be a webmail client, aimed directly at stealing Google’s technological thunder. Reaction from commenters was universally negative. People complained about privacy concerns, made silly FailMail jokes and observed that Google would be pretty hard to beat [...]
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