A Smart Mob

Iconic Photos

2009-11-20T18:21:00.003-05:00

2007-11-11T23:48:00.000-05:00

Duke profs blog (and their PR folks yammer on about it)

2005-05-03T08:49:00.000-04:00

Duke discovers blogging! Stop the presses! Duke PoliSci prof poses as pro-wrestler (an inside joke that isn't quite explained in the article: senior PoliSci Prof. Allan Kornberg was a once professional wrestler known as "Kosher Krusher Kornberg").

A blog, which is short for “weblog,” is an online public journal where the creator and his or her readers can post comments and responses. Michael Munger, chair of the Department of Political Science, posts daily offerings of personal insight as “Killer Grease Mungowitz” on his online blog “Mungowitz End.”

“My blog has nothing to do with my teaching,” Munger said. “It is politically incorrect. And I am pretending to be a professional wrestler.”

Read about Dukie blogs.

South African HIV alerts via SMS

2005-05-03T01:11:00.000-04:00

Hey was doing random research and thought this article (about texting being used in healthcare services) was interesting since we've talked about SMS so much in class:

Texting to help SA HIV patients

Podcasting

2005-05-01T01:39:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if anyone still reads this but...

remember podcasting?

Viacom Launches Podcast-Only Radio Station

Schneier on Security: RFID Passport Security

2005-04-27T12:52:00.000-04:00

Bruce Schneier is blogging about RFID's and how the state department is toying with the idea of embedding them into passports for better security/privacy/speed.

The state department has considered this idea for a while now but was reluctant to pursue it because of privacy and security issues (anyone with an RFID reader can find out all of your personal information stored on your RFID passport and clone it).

The new solution is to put make the RFID passports ask for a special password or security key before they broadcast their information...of course for the system to work this "key" would be known by readers in just about every international airport. That sounds about as secure as UNC's wireless network WEP key.

Schneier on Security: RFID Passport Security

TCP (Transmission by Carrier Pigeons) and by Snails

2005-04-27T11:56:00.000-04:00

Just as we were talking about pigeons as TCP carriers, I end up sitting beside one here at the Grind as I read Dan Gillmor's article refering to an Israeli study of pigeons, "PEI (Pigeon Enabled Internet) is FASTER then ADSL" and of snails, "Snails are faster than ADSL (and Pigeons).

Laptop Rage

2005-04-27T09:27:00.000-04:00

I found this to be a very interesting story about a professors attempt to get his laptop back. His laptop was stolen by someone and to try to get it back he tried scaring the individual. This is what he said in his class.........

"Thanks Gary. I have a message for one person in this audience - I'm sorry the rest of you have to sit through this. As you know, my computer was stolen in my last lecture. The thief apparently wanted to betray everybody's trust, and was after the exam.

The thief was smart not to plug the computer into the campus network, but the thief was not smart enough to do three things: he was not smart enough to immediately remove Windows. I installed the same version of Windows on another computer - within fifteen minutes the people in Redmond Washington were very interested to know why it was that the same version of Windows was being signalled to them from two different computers.

The thief also did not inactivate either the wireless card or the transponder that's in that computer. Within about an hour, there was a signal from various places on campus that's allowed us to track exactly where that computer went every time that it was turned on.

I'm not particularly concerned about the computer. But the thief, who thought he was only stealing an exam, is presently - we think - is probably still in possession of three kinds of data, any one of which can send this man, this young boy, actually, to federal prison. Not a good place for a young boy to be.

You are in possession of data from a hundred million dollar trial, sponsored by the NIH, for which I'm a consultant. This involves some of the largest companies on the planet, the NIH investigates these things through the FBI, they have been notified about this problem.

You are in possession of trade secrets from a Fortune 1000 biotech company, the largest one in the country, which I consult for. The Federal Trade Communication is very interested in this. Federal Marshals are the people who handle that.

You are in possession of proprietary data from a pre-public company planning an IPO. The Securities and Exchange Commission is very interested in this and I don't even know what branch of law enforcement they use.

Your academic career is about to come to an end. You are facing very serious charges, with a probability of very serious time. At this point, there's very little that anybody can do for you. One thing that you can do for yourself is to somehow prove that the integrity of the data which you possess has not been corrupted or copied.

Ironically, I am the only person on the planet that can come to your aid, because I am the only person that can tell whether the data that was on that computer are still on that computer. You will have to find a way of hoping that if you've copied anything that you can prove you only have one copy of whatever was made.

I am tied up all this afternoon; I am out of town all of next week. You have until 11:55 to return the computer, and whatever copies you've made, to my office, because I'm the only hope you've got of staying out of deeper trouble than you or any student I've ever known has ever been in.

I apologise to the rest of you for having to bring up this distasteful matter, but I will point out that we have a partial image of this person, we have two eyewitnesses, with the transponder data we're going to get this person."

*The professor admitted to making it up in order to scare the thief - who has not, incidentally, returned the laptop*

2 Dollar Man

2005-04-27T09:22:00.000-04:00

I came across this article and thought it was real interesting that someone would get jailed for paying with two dollar bills. I honestly forgot they existed until I read this article.

http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/2054/Two_Dollar_Man_jailed_in_Baltimore_County

Face Recognition/Security for your phone & SAT

2005-04-26T14:53:00.000-04:00

I thought these were some interesting if not strange articles on cell phones.

The first link talks about devices/phones that recognize you by your face and the second tells how you can get SAT questions to your phone.

http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=9494

http://www.vocel.com/

RIAA vs UNC and NCSU

2005-04-25T14:08:00.000-04:00

"A federal judge in North Carolina handed the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a legal defeat in its effort to learn the identities of two students accused of illegal file sharing. The RIAA had sought the identities from the students' universities, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, under an expedited subpoena process the group has since abandoned. In a December 2003 decision, another federal judge had rejected the expedited subpoenas, which did not require a judge's signature, ruling that Verizon could not be forced to disclose identities of its customers. In their capacity as Internet service providers (ISPs) for students, universities were given similar protection from the expedited subpoenas. In this case, Judge Russell A. Eliason ruled that an ISP that does not store information but merely transmits it cannot be compelled under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to reveal identities of its users. After the 2003 decision, the RIAA began filing individual "John Doe" lawsuits for illegal file sharing. Under that process, which costs the RIAA more time and money than the other, ISPs can be forced to turn over identities of users."

Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 April 2005 (sub. req'd)

China: Protesters and Police SMS each other

2005-04-25T07:47:00.000-04:00

After SMS and email messages were used to organize crowds that resulted in anit-Japan marches and riots in Shanghai and other cities, the Chinese police are fighting back by sending warning SMS to everyone.
But will that have any effect on the marchers who have been communicating for weeks under the governments's radar?
Is this an example of a Smart Mob or just a mob and an attempt at mob control?
See the full article in today's NYTimes.

House to probe phone firms over text rumors of quake

2005-04-16T14:44:00.000-04:00

Manila phone company is accused of starting a hoax SMS message flow saying a “disaster will happen in Manila and Quezon City a few days after April 15,” just to raise text messaging revenue. The article suggests some changes to be made in present laws to include people sending out false information by text messaging.

Cars to rat on drivers

2005-04-15T16:20:00.000-04:00

The United Arab Emirates has a traffic problem. The abnormally high rate of traffic-related deaths there has resulted in a multi-year program to use technology, specifically telematics and GPS, in the form of a black box that evaluates, reports and warns drivers if they are out of line.
IBM is the winner of a four year contract to install tens of thousands of these black boxes in UAE cars and trucks.
But that's not all the information from the boxes has many uses. "The data gathered by the devices can be used not only by the government to monitor traffic habits, but also by commercial companies to offer consumer-related services such as rental cars and hotels" writes Martin LaMonica at CNet.
For more see: "IBM Car Tech to Nab Speeders"

AOL launches VoIP service | Google's new video service | RFID Sniper Rifle? | Toxic Blogs

2005-04-14T12:04:00.000-04:00

Looks like AOL is making its way into the VoIP business.

AOL launches VoIP service | The Register

and

Google is coming up with a cool new platform for people to distribute their videos.

and

Bruce Schneier's blog has some good discussion (scroll to the bottom) about RFID's and how to possibly intercept their communications with something similar to the "bluetooth sniper rifle" discussed in the article.

and

Check out this article on Toxic Blogs. It describes how blogs can and are being used for virus/malware/keylogger distribution. Maybe that should be a class project for our blog :-)

Duke changes Ipod Plan

2005-04-12T22:11:00.000-04:00

This fall all Duke freshman were given ipods, the new class of Duke freshman won't be so lucky:

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- An iPod in every new student's hand?

Not this fall at Duke.

The private university in Durham has decided not to reprise last year's experimental mass handout to all incoming freshman of the pricey, hard-disk portable digital players.

Only students enrolled in certain classes will get the free gadgets.

The school, which hoped the $300 players would enhance students' learning by allowing them to record lectures, capture oral notes and play language-training recordings, spent $500,000 on the pilot project.

That covered the iPods, salary for an academic computing specialist and grants to faculty members who participated in the program.

After a preliminary report on the project, Duke now plans to issue iPods to students enrolled in selected classes.

(read more)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/04/07/college.ipods.ap/index.html

Yahoo and Google show interest in Wikopedia

2005-04-11T00:22:00.000-04:00

The fact that Wikipedia is preparing to produce a dvd version of the english version of the site.

Yahoo offered both financial and technical backing Thursday to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia written and maintained by volunteers.

Yahoo Inc. is donating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and resources to the nonprofit group behind Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation, a Yahoo representative said.

Could this be the beginning of a large intellectual partnersip for the good of public information sharing?
here's the link www.eweek.com

TIVO might be facing even more hurdles

2005-04-10T23:59:00.000-04:00

Forgent Networks, which has so far garnered more than $100 million in fees on its so-called JPEG patent, is going after the digital video recorder industry.

The Austin, Texas-based maker of DVR components owns four patents it claims give it the right to collect royalties on computers or similar devices, such as those made by market leader TiVo, that record, store and play back video- and audio-transmitted signals.

Check out the site here http://news.com.com/Patent+litigants+target+DVRs/2100-1047_3-5659298.html?tag=nefd.top

Slashdot | Skypecasting - P2P File Sharing

2005-04-10T14:51:00.000-04:00

Skype is so cool :-P

"Technologically savvy users are merging these technologies to "Skypecast", using Skype's service to distribute recordings across the internet for free. This allows expert users to run their own mini-radio stations, which can be accessed by any Skype user. Skype does not actively support these uses, but encourages its users to find new applications for their service. Other possibilities discussed by Skypecasters at Unbound Spiral or Moodle are to turn an MP3 player into a radio station for any of Skype's 29 million registered users to dial up using their Skype line. Instructions also are available on how to record a personal soap opera and use Skype to distribute it en masse. Even more ominously, some Skypecasters record Skype calls and post them on the Internet."

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/10/1640214&from=rss

Employment Search Facts

2005-04-10T00:15:00.000-04:00

The following post from ITFacts’ web site is interesting, but not really surprising (to me): “80% of college grads will look for jobs on the Web, 51% will check out newspapers.” The page has links to many interesting statistical results related to IT and employment. ITFacts.biz also has some interesting facts about the computer game industry and some popular web sites on its main page.

Raleigh Man Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison for Spamming

2005-04-08T23:52:00.000-04:00

ABC News is running an article wherein Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh, NC, has been sentenced to 9 years in prison by a Virgina judge for sending an average of 10 million emails a day. Read up on it here.

So, anyone know him?

Raleigh discovers the Joy of TXT

2005-04-08T15:47:00.000-04:00

News and Observer reporter, Matt Ehlers, discovers that people in Raleigh use SMS -- he refers to this as "texting" -- to flit and stay in touch with their sweeties.
Not quite "toothing" but something that I've seen in my own classes (but please don't try it in our class).
The article does raise an interesting language question: Are you a more effective flirt if you say/write less?

Anonymous Blogging HOW-TO

2005-04-07T20:53:00.000-04:00

In the wake of Apple's treat and suit of bloggers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has developed guidelines for anonymous blogging.

Should you blog anonymously or should you be responsible for your thoughts no matter the risk?

Bluetooth Sex Fraud

2005-04-05T09:27:00.000-04:00

Last year, British readers were shocked to see an article describing how bluetooth was used for finding easy sex. Thanks to wire services the story spread worldwide quickly. Now "toothing" has been revealed to be a giant hoax.
The article in the Register about the hoax also disses Rheingold's Smart Mobs story on the role of SMS in the Phillipines. The writer notes that the price of a voice call in the Phillipines drove people to use SMS. Had voice been cheaper, he writes, people organizing by "phone" would have been the non-story.

BBC: Current State of Blogs

2005-04-03T13:22:00.000-04:00

A relevant and somewhat interesting read about blogging across the world.. talks about political pressure on blogs and political change through blogs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/4398243.stm

- bd

Smart Mobs: The Power of the Mobile Many :: QUESTIONS

2005-03-30T07:35:00.000-05:00

This chapter mentions how one individual attended a wake for a friend’s father and when she arrived, everyone’s head was bowed down; however, to her surprise she realized that everyone was not in fact praying, but instead sending text messages. What does this imply about changes in social behavior due to smart mobs? Do you find yourself using cell phones more and more in places where it was completely unthinkable to use five years ago?
As graduating seniors, many of us will be moving soon to new and much larger cities, where many of us will not know a single person besides our boss. There are numerous social networks site online (i.e. facebook, friendster, etc.); however, none of these sites offer the convenient, instant matchmaking services as mentioned with ImaHima, which lets you ask permission to contact a stranger whose profile is similar to yours and is nearby your current location. If these services are available to wherever you plan to relocate, would you use these services? Why or Why not?
On the www.smartmobs.com blog, there was an article discussing how mobile phones were used and still are being used as political channels in the Persian Gulf.

The story also points out the use of this technology for abuse:
“Rola Dashti... pressed her phone's text message button and read an anonymous insult circulating on hundreds of Kuwaiti phones, digital graffiti that attacked her family's Persian ancestry and disparaged her Lebanese-born mother. "Here's what voters will gain if they vote for Rola Dashti," the text message read, as she recalled it. "They will learn the Iranian accent. They will learn a Lebanese accent. And they will learn how to work with the American Embassy to get money." - article

Rheingold concludes this chapter discussing how computers and the Internet were designed, but the way people would use them were not designed into the technology. Since then, many forms of abuse have developed on the Internet, such as spam and pop up ads. What abuse do you see in the future for cell phones?
Rheingold mentions how Upoc sends out a “NYC terrorism alert”. Should alerts like this become mandatory for every cell phone? Why would people be against this?

Always-On Panopticon ...or Cooperation Amplifier? :: Questions

2005-03-30T00:26:00.000-05:00

1. Rheingold mentions many instances where individuals refused the uptake of a new technological innovation. The author mentions a study of Norwegian teens where “a certain percent of all teens, about 10%-15%, have resisted adoption of the mobile telephone. Like those adults who do not purchase a television, these teens often have clear ideologies against ownership and use.”

Have you ever resisted the use of a new technology? Have you ever felt forced to make use of a new technology? Has our culture evolved to the point where “nonadopters” are no longer viewed as conscientious objectors, but as ignorant individuals?

2. From Smart Mobs:

“Every telephone call, credit card transaction, mouse-click, email, automatic bridge toll collection, convenience market video camera, and hotel room electronic key collects and broadcasts personal information that is increasingly compiled, compared, sorted and stored by an unknown and possibly unknowable assortment of state security agencies and people who want to sell something”

From the BBC:

“The chance to win theatre tickets is enough to make people give away their identity, reveals a survey.

Of those taking part 92% revealed details such as mother's maiden name, first school and birth date. “

Do you think that the widespread collection and availability of personal information has increased or decreased the value of privacy to modern society?

3. Rheingold mentions MIT researcher Joseph Weizenbaum who “declared that it would be an abomination to start connecting the nervous tissue of living creatures to future computers. “ Check out this research from Duke.

“After demonstrating that an owl monkey's brain signals could be analyzed to operate a robot arm, Miguel Nicolelis and his colleagues will next graduate to a "feedback loop" system to explore whether the brain can incorporate the arm into its representation of the body.”

Duke researchers have been able to get both rats and monkeys to control robotic arms through the use of circuitry connected directly to their brains. They’ve also tested the system to see if those signals could be sent over the internet…and they can. This is much more advanced than the “cyborgs” we’ve read about thus far. How far would you be willing to go with hardwired human-machine circuitry? (Driving a car with no hands, changing channels on your TV with just a thought…)

4. When someone chooses to use a new technology, most choose to accept it regardless of the possible negative effects of their new gadget.

Rheingold mentions phones that can be used to find your location by just being turned on.

New computers, cars, and phones with Bluetooth technology are being hacked easily.

When “your friend” downloads and installs some file sharing programs, they accept the spyware / malware / adware that infect their computer.

In some cases these technologies are necessities, others …just plain fun. Either way, one will have to accept the negative aspects of these technologies or have to do without. At what point does information security stop you from using a new technology? Does it matter to you as long as you can download faster, link easier, or talk longer?

Beware the Panopticon

2005-03-29T22:58:00.000-05:00

Rheingold speaks about our cyborg friend, Steve Mann, in reference to the type of person who accepts nearly all aspects of automation and mechanization as inherently positive. However, the question also arises concerning whether people are dehumanizing themselves in a quest for improved “technique” or efficiency. What are your thoughts? Would you accept a proven scientific treatment to augment your brain power? Moreover, would you be accepting of any type of mechanical augmentation? What if your life depended on it?

In the acceptance of different forms of technology, how do we avoid the metaphorical tragedy of the commons (or the digital divide v.2) or the winner take all consequences of zero-sum situations? Is it necessary to have government regulation to curb individuals who wish to exploit the global network? What, if anything, should be done to facilitate the widespread diffusion of innovation?

Rheingold mentions on numerous occasions that society as we know it today is the process of varying levels of interpersonal and societal cooperation. Do you feel that the growing level of constant access to vast amounts of information and other online databases makes people less reliant on their immediate peers? Also, do you think that the loss of personal interaction in exchange for mobile communicators will have any long-term adverse effects, or none whatsoever?

Is the internet devolving back into a mass medium for marketing and becoming a tool of consumerism? What solutions can you think of to avoid having the internet be chiefly a medium which dictates information flow to a large number of passive consumers? (simply answering blogging will not suffice…)

Do “Smart Mobs” lead to a more knowledgeable populace or simply one where all participants know the same things as everyone else? Bonus points if you can use Panopticon in a sentence...

UNC Student Protest for File Sharing Rights

2005-03-29T22:29:00.000-05:00

After talking about the upcoming Supreme Court case of MGM Studios v. Grokster after days ago, I thought that it would be an interesting read to see what others thought about the case. One UNC student (actually a SILS graduate student) has taken action to be part of history.... Is this real-life example enough for you, I would think so :-)

The story can be found here: Camping Out for the Grokster Case

Smart Mobs: The Power of the Mobile Many

2005-03-29T19:06:00.000-05:00

1. Rheingold mentions various mobile communication technologies designed to support cooperation, awareness, and interactions between individuals within their respective vicinities. (Lovegety, Upoc, Aurnet, and ImaHima). The automated exchange of information among users is stated to create webs of trust as well as unplanned, informal interactions. Has anyone ever used this type of advice? Why or why not? An example cited in the chapter illustrates using Aurnet to gather a carpool of strangers—Would you trust this type of device?

2. Decentralized, self-organizing social networks have proved not only to be intelligent but also successful in their ability to function and solve/manage problems that would be either too complex or too large for any one individual. Can you think of potential problems or cases in which such organizations would not function efficiently? Additionally, how are these social systems vulnerable?

3. Are we too connected? Researchers state that connectivity is key—you can use electronic connections to better yourself economically (connectivity = productivity; disconnection disables). However, opponents argue that in the technological age, individuals and businesses have decreased in productivity. Which side would you agree with? Consider not only economic factors but evolving social norms as well.

4. What are some possible short-term as well as long-term effects of network-structured communities using “netwars” for democratic and non-democratic purposes?

Wireless based internet for the home

2005-03-28T10:47:00.000-05:00

From The Register:

Not for us, but maybe one day...

Two German telecom companies are pumping out cheap broadband service based on 3G wireless technology. For a regular home connection the cost is about twenty Euros (~25 dollars) a month for 5 gig worth of data transfer.

"Vodafone and O2 have now rolled out the 3G-based home broadband service they promised earlier this year: prices look more aggressive than first expected. But can it succeed? Well, maybe, just maybe, in some apartment blocks."

Using 3G wireless for domestic broadband | The Register

Wireless Quilts Questions

2005-03-28T01:40:00.000-05:00

These days wireless networking affects almost everything that we do. Rheingold does an excellent job of describing wireless networking more in depth and providing a way to further analyze whether their is a need for wireless and its use in public areas.

Questions:

(1) This chapter talked about wireless networks being in areas where computer users cluster-coffee shops. How many people in the class can say that they go to coffee shops like Starbucks to do work and use the wireless connection there and if they do use wireless at coffee shops, how often do they go?

(2) How do you think wireless networking affects the way people use public places? This is something that Anthony Townsend, a research scientist was investigating, focusing on how WiFi affected the way people used public places.

(3) In this chapter, Rheingold says "Wireless is undoubtedly the best way to bring online the majority of the world's population." Do you agree and if so, how is wireless luring people in?

(4) What shifts or turns do you think wireless networking will take in the near future? What specific things would you like to see happen (improvements etc.)? Do you think that wireless networking will be a more profitable business in years to come?

Wireless Quilts Questions

2005-03-26T14:27:00.000-05:00

1. Do you believe that increasing wireless internet access points will in turn give more and more people access to the internet? How has wireless Internet access at Carolina changed the way you do your work and use the internet? Has it enhanced or complicated your Internet experience?

2. Rheingold mentions that many mobile communications empower cooperative bands of intercommunicants in urban places. After Jessamyn West's talk about rural places, how do you think rural places would be "empowered" by coorperative bands of intercommunicants. Would these rural people be receptive of the wireless internet, or be hesitant of the emerging technology?

3. From the www.smartmobs.com website: Skype has reached an agreement with Motorola that aims to embed Skype software onto a number of Motorola WiFi-, 3G-, and even WiMax-enabled mobile phones in the near future. As a result, subscribers will be able to make free national calls and low-cost international calls by using the Internet to carry calls rather than standard mobile networks." (thanks to Michael Sciannamea)

Do you think that agreements like this will eliminate land line phones, and long distance phone carriers? How will Skype on wireless phones transform the way in which people communicate?

4. Large ISPs are now in danger of losing customers because wireless internet is available in many common places like libraries and coffee shops, do you feel that the Internet is a public resource? Should it be divided in divisions and owners of a certain space where the wireless signal covers? What are some long term repercussions of this decision?

Wireless Quilts Locally

2005-03-24T12:07:00.000-05:00

This week's Independent has good coverage of the public wireless situation in the Triangle and about the ways things have gotten complicated down in Laurinburg, NC.
See this entry in my blog for links and more

Long Tail - Chris Anderson's blog

2005-03-24T08:40:00.000-05:00

http://longtail.typepad.com/ is Wired Editor-in-Chief, Chris Anderson's ongoing blog that came from his article, The Long Tail (Wired, October 2004), and is going toward his proposed book to published by Hyperion, in early 2006.
You may also be interested in the Wikipedia article on The Long Tail as well.

Imageshack.us

2005-03-24T01:10:00.000-05:00

Imageshack is a really cool image hosting service, similar to Flickr in that it creates the links for you so all you have to do is paste them in your blog.

The site is also different for you don't have to login to upload an image..you can just do it on the fly.

Check it out.

http://imageshack.us

Slashdot | Google's Library Up and Running

2005-03-21T10:29:00.000-05:00

Speaking of libraries...

"Google has partnered with several major libraries to digitize their collections and make them searchable on Google Print."

http://print.google.com/googleprint/about.html

...and another short article on slashdot

Slashdot | Google's Library Up and Running

The slashdot article says that you can actually find some full text results under "Book results." I've tried and it doesn't work for me, maybe you'll have better luck.

Deals struck for campus video on demand

2005-03-21T00:15:00.000-05:00

"Cdigix, a company that provides online music subscription services to college campuses, said it has struck deals with Disney and Turner Broadcasting System to offer students access to videos," says the short article. From this article, it sounds like they are trying to offer a service similar to Time Warner's movies on demand/iCONTROL. But I wonder who would pay that much for movies anymore with Netflix available. I understand that they are trying to stop illegal downloads, but $4 per movie will not do it in my opinion.

Some new announcements from eTech Conference

2005-03-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

Chris DiBona, who is now OpenSource Project manager at Google, announced http://code.google.com. Note that Google is using SourceForge to host their open projects. Chris named SourceForge back in the day. We still run a SourceForge download mirror on ibiblio.org

Larry Lessig announced that his book, Code, will be available for update via wiki beginning today (hosted by JotSpot)

Odeo the podcasting company presented (but not live or even in Beta quite yet).

BBC's Paula Le Dieu will be heading up the Creative Commons International efforts from London. Le Dieu has been working on BBS's very large Creative Archive project which will continue.

Jeff Bezos announced and demoed A9.com's openSearch.

Yahoo Tech Labs announced the Tech Buzz Market Game.

O'Reilly announced their new Where Conference to take place June 29 - 30 in SFO. It will:

explore the emerging consumer and enterprise ecosystems around location-aware technologies--ecosystems that increasingly impact the way we work and play. Location-determining technologies like GPS, RFID, WLAN, cellular networks and networked sensors enable an ever-growing array of capabilities from local search, mapping, and business analytics to enterprise integration, commercial applications, and software infrastructure.

Bloglines/Ask Jeeves purchase explained. (in more details that the article that I linked to there).

Protect Your Private Information From Google Desktop Search!

2005-03-13T10:53:00.000-05:00

Discussions about Google’s desktop search tool allowing access to other user’s private information came up before already. Here is some info about how to protect your private data from people who do not know too much about computers. :-)

Have you heard of SXSW?

2005-03-13T10:50:00.000-05:00

I have not before today… SXSW is an Austin, Texas company that is focusing on “building and delivering conference and festival events for entertainment and related media industry professionals.” They are running their SXSW INTERACTIVE FESTIVAL right now (March 11 – 15), and it seems like that is a place to be for techies to share their creative ideas about interactive technologies. This article talks mainly about how British bands have been invading the US market, but it also has some links to some good PR resources.

Wireless Usage Cultures

2005-03-13T10:23:00.000-05:00

Here is another article which discuses the differences in (Mobil) phone usage between European countries and the States. Besides contrasting phone usage: “teenagers in Athens, Georgia, talk on their fixed line phone for four hours a day while those in Athens, Greece, are sending four text messages on their mobile phones,” the article goes into the economical aspects of the phone business around the world.

Big p2p move in Microsoft's near future

2005-03-10T21:33:00.000-05:00

Today Microsoft bought Groove Networks, the p2p software being used by our troops in Iraq. Along with the purchase came Ray Ozzie who created Lotus Notes and Groove. Ozzie will become the Chief Technical Officer of Microsoft reporting directly to Bill Gates and bypassing Steve Ballmer.
Expect big changes and very new products from Microsoft soon. Changes that will bring more p2p, more blogging, more futures like those predicted by the Museum of Media History.

Museum of Media History (2014)

2005-03-10T21:29:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't seen this 8 minute movie that follows the development of the Web, Google, Amazon, Blogger, Friendster, Newsbot and others to their logical conclusions, you will enjoy their projections of a future for the next 10 years.

Las Preguntas para Miércoles

2005-03-09T06:53:00.000-05:00

1. Rheingold mentions the development of “distributed reputation systems for ad-hoc wearable computer communities.” How do you feel about this prospect? Think about it in terms of RFID tags as discussed in Monday’s class: what do you think of the possibility that anyone with a cellphone or PDA might one day be able to pull up your “reputation” score on the spot by interfacing with an RFID tag stored in your personal device or credit card? How would this effect social interaction in general?

2. The chapter points out the emergence of systems where reputation serves as a social reward in itself, perhaps granting the user esteem, personal gratification, or making it easier to interface with other people in the community. Do you think that people would participate in a system that did not feature a reputation system of some sort, where there was no way for them to enjoy any personal effects? For example, do you think a community where every user listed as anonymous would survive?

3. In a similar vein, do you think it would be at all possible to have a commercial community that functioned and grew without an underlying reputation system? That is to say, could websites like eBay exist if there was no way to check a seller’s reputation? Rheingold says no, but what do you personally think? Can you think of an example?

4. When someone has an opinion of someone else in the “real world,” we can easily evaluate that opinion based on what we know of the beholder – i.e. if Bob says that Jack is a liar and a horse-thief, we might brush it off, since we might also know that Bob himself is a convicted felon and notorious liar. Similarly, Bob might never make such a statement to begin with, knowing full well that Jack is a trained cage-fighter and would kick him in the face. Online communities, however, have the added attribute of anonymity. Bob could create a new user account, slander Jack, and then disappear, either creating a new account or leaving the site in general. Thus, Jack’s reputation is harmed, while Bob skips off without fear of retribution. Based on this example and on human ficklness in general, can one really trust an online reputation system? Similarly, how can new users starting with no reputation gain trust to begin with?

Electronic Reputations

2005-03-08T23:54:00.000-05:00

1. Electronic reputations have become a virtual "gold standard" for purchasing products online. What standards do you use before purchasing online products? How much does the person's reputation factor into that decision? What metric do you use in determining a trustworthy individual?

2. In an electronic society there is a potential for someone to steal someone's authentication information and impersonate another individual. If this impersonator tarnishes their reputation, how does one go about restoring their reputation again? Additionally, what would this individual have to do for you to "trust" them again?

3. Rheingold talks about group moderation systems such as with Slashdot. Can you think of an example where group moderation is not the most appropriate system? Can group moderation lead to censorship of ideas or will the consensus of the group create a moderate equilibrium?

4. "Ballot stuffing" and "bad mouthing" were two method of cheating in an electronic reputation system? Can you think of anyway to prevent or stifle these actions? Moreover, how can you gauge whether your proposed system would be effective?

5. Here's a scenario: You go to a local Pepsi machine and notice that when you hit a button it dispenses a drink, free-of-charge. Inquisitively you press another button and the exact same action occurs again, you receive another free drink. You notice that there is a group of individuals approaching this "magical" machine. Do you tell the group about the charitable machine or do you allow them to pay for their drink and leave? Why?

Blogging as Journalism, with nods to Dan Gillmor

2005-03-08T18:48:00.000-05:00

Slashdot is pimping yet another article regarding the Apple/Think Secret court case. This time the discussion is based around the court's refusal to extend journalistic protection to those involved. What's really cool about the article, however, is that it mentions postings by our new-found homeboy, Dan Gillmor. According to his blog, Dan's gone and filed declarations of support in the court case; tear 'em up, D!

-Bertito

Evolution of Reputation

2005-03-08T13:52:00.000-05:00

Pattie Maes
Alexa
Brewster Kahle (2004)
ePinions
Slashdot
Paul Resnick
GroupLens
MovieLens
Reputations Research Network
Chris Dellarocas
Marc Smith at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
Technorati Top 100

Virtual technology you can actually afford (sort of)

2005-03-07T17:45:00.000-05:00

A virtual keyboard??? Check out this small projector you can connect to your palm pilot that serves as a keyboard. A laser projects a keyboard outline on any flat surface to create a virtual keyboard and this thing actually works.

http://www.internity.co.uk/vkb.asp

http://www.time.com/time/2002/inventions/rob_keyboard.html

http://www.canesta.com/canestakeyboard.htm

http://www.alpern.org/weblog/stories/2003/01/09/projectionKeyboards.html

SOme predictions about RFID and Mobile markets

2005-03-07T09:16:00.000-05:00

This article by Deloitte, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6841062/ outlines the growth curve for the mobile telephony industry and mentions that some markets have now surpassed 100% saturation. Which means that more customers are either using two cell phones or more people are finally using digital cellular for data transmission. Maybe smart phones with RFID capability aren't that far away...

Era of Sentient Things. continued...

2005-03-07T08:18:00.000-05:00

Continuing on Hinar's coverage of this chapter, a few additional questions:

Entending question 13 - Is conversation, and/or human interaction, actually improved by "easy access to Google"? Does having this information at our fingertips take away anything from "traditional" social interaction? Is it then our duty to be "correct" (accurate?) with these technologies available at all times/places?

As the Internet became more available and more popular, so did those attempting to profit from it. What about spy-ware, ad-ware, hacking, and advertising in a world where the physical, intellectual, and cyber -- environments have been merged?

If we are to change the physical world into something augmented by constant access to information, the internet, and cyber-interaction --- then who will push us into "tommorrow". This chapter mentions several large corporations that seem to have a vested interest - or will it come from the open-source community?
If either succeeds then what about our big brother - the Government. They like to have at least some level of control over everything and there is no doubt that this would be included. Would government participation be a hinderence or helpful?
Does the government even belong in this conversation?

The Era of Sentient Things Questions

2005-03-07T00:14:00.000-05:00

According to Rheingold, virtual reality has been around for quite a while (since at least 1990), but for most of this time we only saw it as an instrument of simulations and video games. What other uses can you imagine for virtual reality in the future? Internet chats and instant messaging being so popular these days, I can imagine a new kind of communication on-line, where participants do not only have an alternative identity in their names, conversations and picture icons, but they also get to have a virtual physical appearance. This could be extended into a virtual role-play on-line.
This leads to another possible future community, where people meet in a virtual world, and where they might interact with people by sharing not only words but gestures also. Can you think of reasons why someone would interact this way rather than in reality (anonymity)?
The book talks about the “Marriage of Bits and Atoms.” Do you think connecting the physical and the virtual reality with emerging technologies only leads to a more advanced use of technology, or could we learn more about the real world around us by knowing more about computer bits?
Do you use a GPS? What are you mainly using it for? Mobile devices with wireless internet access are still relatively expensive, so onsite location-information retrieval is still hard to achieve. Would you use a GPS so that you can use and share information about locations and objects in your community, even if it means that you have to retrieve and upload data before or after you visit the places?
Do you think devices and different ‘things’ in general could make our world safer if we used sentient objects (Smart holograms)? For example, how would you feel if guns would be programmed to monitor their targets and would not work against humans (and animals either if you asked me :-)? What would be their ethical and privacy related aspects?
With satellite cameras that can spot relatively small objects almost anywhere around the world, and with location devices like the ankle cuffs the book mentions that can also be traced, people could be monitored at all times in the future (especially with technology improving so rapidly). The book also talks about smart rooms and outfits that interact with the people wearing them. Would they allow faster medial responses to illnesses or accidents (Running Shoe from Adidas/Pervasive patient monitoring)? Would that allow an even further monitoring of previously convicted persons? Where is the border between making our lives safer and giving up our privacy?
Does Ivan Sutherland’s “ultimate display” sound like a scene from The Matrix? Will computers/we be able to create matter? Who knows? The present administration is researching the possibilities of teleportation already… “Beam me up, Scotty!”
Would you like a handheld that can read the RFID tags’ radio signals and download information about products from the internet? Would manufacturers like that?
Would you like the RFID tags to be removed after you bought your product or track them throughout their lifecycles?
Would making things around us smart and not dependent on our instructions and interactions decrease our obligations to know how the world around us works (evolution of computers vs. devolution of us)?
Could wearable computers that remove advertisement from our lives develop and become popular in a customer-targeted economy we live in?
Doesn’t becoming a Cyborg still scare you?
Knowledge and information shared and retrieved instantly would definitely ‘extend’ our memory capabilities. Would it reduce our capability of thinking?

The Era of Sentient Things

2005-03-06T17:04:00.000-05:00

VR at UNC
Elumens
Steve Mann
Cooltown is now Bazaar
Warren Robinett
Websigns
Smart Dust at Berkeley
Roadblocks to RFIDs in Cnet 2/19/04
Steve Bellovin
Marcel Waldvogel
FDA on RFID for Drugs
RFID Journal
Wikipedia on RFID
Wikipedia on Smart Dust
Center for Bits and Atoms
Neil Gershenfeld

UNC makes the top 500

2005-03-03T18:39:00.000-05:00

Check out #395 on the list.

http://www.top500.org/list/2003/11/

A cluster of linux blades within our very own baobab complex made the top 500 list back in November of 2003. We've long since dropped of the list, I guess that's why we couldn't find it in class.

**Thanks to Tonya Heath of ITS for this info.**

Ok ok ... I promise no more (after this) about blogs.

2005-03-02T23:51:00.000-05:00

I don't know how many of you read the DTH regularly (other than for the crossword) but this article contains a reaction to a conservative political blog written by a student here at UNC.

Although the article does not give the location or name of the blogger, many students on campus were able to find it (like I did).

Political / Ethical beliefs aside, I was wondering what everyone thought about this incident. I personally worry that events such as this will encourage self-censorship. I mean, my blog entries aren't nearly as controversial but even still, the idea that something that I haphazardly type in my blog could become campus controversy...spooky.

Information Security and Paranoia

2005-03-02T23:41:00.000-05:00

There is one issue I have been thinking about for a long time. It seems like the more information we share and is available, the more paranoid we get. Is it because we are more aware of security treats in our environment, or is it a 21st century sociological change in us? We hear news about attempts to steal people’s identities or at least their credit card numbers, almost every day. We make our passwords extremely complicated and think twice before we give out information about ourselves. Does paranoia naturally come with being aware of the dangers of the modern world, or are we loosing our trust in other people and humanity? This mind sound a little harsh and too philosophical, but I am interested in what you think about how much worrying is too much.

World Community Grid

2005-03-02T17:13:00.000-05:00

No sooner than I get my office back from the rewiring folks, I get a note from a researcher at IBM asking for faculty who have proposals that might like use the World Community Grid for their work.
Just like many of the projects that Rheingold writes about in today's chapter, the WCG project uses idle computer cycles for grid computer work. The difference is that WCG is designed to be flexible rather than special purpose (it could do SETI or Folding or whatever). Their smallpox case study is particularly interesting -- good to read of a success.
Imagine that you had a complex problem that you wanted to solve using WCG, what would it be?

P2P-American Cancer Society

2005-03-02T08:42:00.000-05:00

Rheingold talks at length about SETI@home and briefly mentions other, similar projects. An article by the American Cancer Society (http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/content/MED_2_1X_Intel_and_Scientific_Community_Announce_Cancer_Research_Program.asp) goes into more detail, providing deeper insight into the goals of the researchers and computers. The article depicts this form of peer-to-peer technology as a type of computer philanthropy as opposed to a pastime activity.

Computation Nations and Swarm Supercomputers Questions

2005-03-01T20:50:00.000-05:00

1) Has anyone participated in distributed processing projects such as SETI@home ? – why did you participate, would you participate in similar project ?

2) Does it bother you that organizations are using your resources for free? Would you be more willing to let your computer participate if you were compensated (with maybe a couple cents for its time/power) ? Should compensation be calculated on processor speed and time allocated?

3) Should we allow individuals/organizations to profit off such projects, or should we prohibit the profitability, because we think it is for a good cause?

4) Are programs as such an invasion of privacy? Spy ware programs consume system resources, most people don’t enjoy them. Why allow something to use your resources for free—that could potentially monitor your behavior? Why do millions of people trust these organizations to put software on the system, when it could easily include malicious applications?

5) Will volunteering computer power really work to solve complex problems?
What about the validity and reliability of the data processed on individuals computers—can organizations trust it? Processors and disk storage is becoming more and more inexpensive, should companies be forced to purchase the necessary resources or can they rely on others ?

6) In the future do you think people need to be forced to share, or will people continue to share because they think they are “right” thing to do?

Computation Nation and Swarm Supercomputers

2005-03-01T20:25:00.000-05:00

Cory Doctorow
SETI@home
Folding@home
MGM v Grokster
Dan Bricklin
Cornucopia of the Commons
Gnutella
OpenCOLA
Larry Smarr
Larry Smarr at CIT
Doubts in California (about Smarr ad CITRIS)

Technologies of Cooperation_Questions

2005-03-01T19:53:00.000-05:00

With regards to the "cornucopia of commons,"
where do you think the internet stands today?
Should there be a move towards a more/less open innovation commons?
Universities have been stuggling with this issue already (some schools have stopped using file sharing programs), what side should UNC support?

Rheingold talks about social capital in the internet.
Do you think this social capital has actual power to affect change now and in the future?
Can you descibe any current situations where social capital may be the driving force behind a technology?

Rheingold give many examples of social capital and corporations in the US:
Do other countries/regions seem to be moving towards a more open/restricted commons?
Is this important or a threat to US corportations and innovations?

Technologies of Cooperation

2005-03-01T15:04:00.000-05:00

I found an interesting example of an IT application of the problem described as the "Prisoner's Dilemma" in the Rheingold book.

http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/eco/game/IT1.html

I also feel that game theory has infinite applications in the business world due to the continuous problem of companies being forced (through economies of scale or governmental action) to work together while at the same time trying to be competitive against each other. Politics seems to follow a similar strategy but it seems to me that all parties involved in policy-making are fully aware of their own agenda and there is a sort-of mutual assured back-stabbing.

Maybe you all have some other examples of people actually working together in industry, such as the Cell project and etc.

Technologies of Cooperation

2005-02-28T08:08:00.000-05:00

1. Given the situation:

By cooperating with a group you can bring them up thus allowing them to be rewarded. You yourself are also rewarded.
By acting only in self interest you remove any reward from that group, yet you still are rewarded the same as if you were to cooperate with the group.

Given that the outcome for yourself would be the same, why would you choose not to cooperate.

2. Should the hacker's ethic be upheld by everyone? Do you think we would progress more if it were, or does the world evolve more by everyone not upholding this ethic?

3. Do you feel that people should cooperate with each other consistently in order to achieve common goals? Or do you feel that by being selfish we can achieve more for the future.

4. At the rate that society is going, are we moving towards a more cooperative society?

Some links for Chapter 2 - Technologies of Cooperation

2005-02-27T20:21:00.000-05:00

marc a smith
Aura Project

mancur olson

elinor ostrom
digital library of the commons

garrett hardin society (tragedy of
the commons)

peter kropotkin
Mutual Aid
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke

John Von Neumann
John Von Neumann
Richard Stallman
Eric Raymond
Marc Andreessen

Brian Behlendorf
early usenet
Steve Bellovin
Barry Wellman
David Reed's Law

Technologies of Cooperation

2005-02-27T19:22:00.000-05:00

1. How might the internet have evolved differently without the guidelines of "the hacker ethic?" Would the internet have evolved at all?

2. To what extent do you think the elements of "motivation" or competition/conflict (i.e. the Department of Defense's reaction to Sputnik) interact with cooperation (as seen in open source communities)? Is one factor stronger than the other, or are they both necessary to create a balancing act?

3. It is argued that "eBay won because it facilitated the formation of social groups around specific interests," (pg. 59) which was a driving force behind the formation of Reed's Law. Do you think this ability to grasp the concept of social group formation is what ultimately led to eBay's success?

4. In the end, do you think humans are innately driven more toward cooperative behaviors or self-interests?

We're not well liked in our own field...

2005-02-25T11:07:00.000-05:00

According to a recent Library Journal article, that is, wherein ALA president Michael Gorman discusses his distaste for bloggers. From the slashdot newsposting:

"American Library Association president Michael Gorman is not too fond of bloggers and blogging. '[The] Blog People (or their subclass who are interested in computers and the glorification of information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics who do not share that belief... Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs.'"

-Bertito

Speaking of ipod shuffles as storage mediums....

2005-02-24T23:48:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting article about creating a RAID device using 4 IPOD Shuffles. It's pretty cool because you could create a portable hard drive where the information would be split up over 4 Shuffles and wouldn't be able to comprehendable when plugged in on its own.

To the Article: "iPOD Shuffle Raid"

Putting it all together: Blogging about SMS

2005-02-24T12:02:00.000-05:00

jill/txt: i shall sms them

Speaking of how American's don't really SMS... this blogger wrote a quick entry about American's and SMS from a European point of view and it actually mentions Smart Mobs. Cool hunh?

Scroll down to the trackbacks/comments for some good commentary.

Google SMS

2005-02-22T21:42:00.000-05:00

Since we're talking about SMS, I thought I'd mention GOOGL SMS. I had a little fun with it when it first came out. Google Labs has more.

Questions for 2/23

2005-02-22T20:55:00.000-05:00

Introduction :

1. How do you use SMS? What is your monthly SMS usage? Are some of your friends not able to receive SMS messages? Do you think you don’t use it as much because your phone plan has included minutes or it isn’t part of your social culture? Personally, I hate voicemail and would rather SMS to get my point across.

2. How do you feel about building trust through social networks? Is sharing personal information worthwhile in effort to build meaningful relationships? Rheingold mentions online rating systems such as Ebay’s rating system for sellers. How much do you rely on a person or company’s reputation before interacting with them or doing business with them?

3. Rheingold mentions mobile devices as enabling people to form a social power they didn’t take advantage of before. Do you think this is the same “bottom-up” methodology that Gillmor mentions in “We the Media”? …A sort of empowerment of the people? Do you share experiences on the internet that benefit others?

4. Key breakthroughs don’t come from “established industry leaders” (Rheingold xiiii) but from the “fringes” or from the people. Do you agree with this statement? If this is the case, then why does Japan have a much more popular phone network with more features than we have?

5. How do you feel about always being connected (always having a cell phone or staying online via an instant messaging client). Does it distract you from what you should be doing more than it should? What are the social implications of not just our generation but future generations that have more social demands because of these technologies?

Chapter 1.

Do you use your cell phone to browse the internet?

Would you use it more if it were cheaper?
Personally, I like using wireless on campus and I usually have wireless access, so I never use it. But, I do like being connected all the time. I feel disconnected otherwise.

Combining physical presence with virtual presence is one of Rheingold’s main points. Will having many-to-many conversations make us a more productive society? How will our social lives be affected?
Location based dating and gaming seems to be taking off in Japan and Finland. Will it take off here? Would you use these kind of services? Do you think cell phone companies have the wrong target audience with the services they offer?
Being always connected forms a “social empowerment” in society that didn’t exist before. What will result out of this “social empowerment”? Maybe, limiting our rights or freedoms?

Networking with the Human Body

2005-02-22T16:23:00.000-05:00

Don't know how many people caught this little article over on slashdot discussing the use of the surface of the human body as a data transmission device, but I thought it was pretty interesting. Quoting the I4U post:

"NTT announces Human Area Networking technology Research Project called RedTacton, that safely turns the surface of the human body into a data transmission path at speeds up to 10 Mbps between any two points on the body."

Think about the business applications...you could hold your ipod in one hand, and then touch a terminal in your local Disc Jockey to download a song you want. Or maybe use it to make quick uploads of pictures to your blog without having to worry about USB cables.

Check out the flash demo over at RedTacton's site.

-Bertito

Security Issues With Emerging Technologies

2005-02-22T15:12:00.000-05:00

I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard that Paris Hilton's T-Mobile Sidekick was hacked and over 400 phone numbers, emails, addresses, and pictures were posted to the internet. It contained a lot of phone numbers of other Hollywood celebrities as well. What does this say about security and emerging technologies? Should celebrities take precautions when entering data into their personal mobile devices? Does this make you feel insecure about the security of your own data on your cell phone or PDA?

Questions for Feb. 23--Introduction and Chapter 1

2005-02-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

Introduction:

1. Think about a particular technological device you have right now (ex. digital camera, PC, cell phone, ipod, etc.) Try imagine life without it, what are some pros and cons that you can list to your personal life without this device?

How about imagining the world without this device? What are some changes there (social, political, relationships, habits, entertainment related..etc.) , both good and bad?

2. The "device" Reingold mentioned on page xii--where we are to link objects, plaes and people reminds me of a world like in the movies Minority Report, Irobot, Starship Troopers, etc. How possible do you think it is to unify all information and have one centralized system. This way we can have just one form of ID and all information needed are accessed quickly. What are some of the hurdles in the way?

Shibuya Epiphany:

1. Rheingold started out the whole book by mentioning the culture of text messaging in Japan. Do you think he approves of such a culture? How exactly do you imagine he feels about this just through his tone?

2. Through Matsunaga's description of "the addition of symbolic characters," we can probably relate it back to AIM smileys. Do you think of this as a form of language revolution? At this rate, where will our written language be in 50 years?

3. Looking at the lives of "Gentxts," do you feel scared or hopeful? Do you think our society will reach that state despite what Mozuko Ito said about the private life styles in the US?

Cell Chip Pictures

2005-02-21T12:53:00.000-05:00

Since we ended up talking a little bit about the cell processor in class I decided I would post some decent artciles about it.

This first one has actual pictures of the chip, these don't really mean much to me, but maybe you'll get a kick out of it.

This bit from slashdot has a lot of useful links.

Here's an article that illudes to the cell chip being used in Sony's new PS3. The Register has a lot of great info about the processor and if you check the links at the bottom you should find all the information you need.

Daily Show on Blogs

2005-02-20T18:27:00.000-05:00

Brendan pointed us to the Daily Show's take on blog on the class discussion board. I was just sent a link to a QuickTime version of the Show. Take a look and enjoy.
Is the Daily Show right?

Podcasting makes the Front Page of NYTimes

2005-02-19T21:28:00.000-05:00

The groundwork for podcasting was set back in 2001 when Dave Winer added a "Payload" to RSS. But it wasn't til this past summer (2004) when Adam Curry wrote a script to carry the payload into iTunes and then to your iPod that the term and practice of podcasting took off.
Last week podcasting got attention in USA Today. Today podcasting was a front page story in the NYTimes. The Times story was more of the odd people do odd things tale that has dogged bloggers to me, but Dave Winer saw the article as mostly positive.
What's your take on podcasting and on the article?

Welcome to A Smart Mob

2005-02-19T14:46:00.000-05:00

This blog will be a forum for updates and discussions for the Emerging Technologies and Issues class section 001. We'll pick up from the Blackboard discussions, but don't feel limited to those topics..