"... And they had a lot more than my email address. They had pictures of me, uploaded by my friends and tagged with my name. They knew who my friends were. They knew what my friends liked. They knew more or less how I would fit into their social network. If they wanted to, they could deduce a lot of information about the person behind the email address. ..."
Thanks greatly for that link. Moglen is a great speaker and his idea of the "Freedom box" (personal servers where you own the logs) goes a long way, to paraphrase Moglen: to put "Zuc" into receivership.
"... I first started to think seriously about procedural textures when I was working on TRON at MAGI in Elmsford, NY, in 1981. ..." ~ http://www.noisemachine.com/talk1/4.html
"... Any Australian HN readers could explain why Australia (or at least its government) seems to be obsessed with controlling the Internet? ..."
For the answer to that I think you might want to study the "classics": rhetoric and the Roman Republic ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Republic You will find all the answers there. Legacy seen through the lens of history has a way of sorting the barbaric from the visionary government.
"... Back in the day slashdot was great for quality comments. Then they grew and added a karma system which... didn't really help, just buried the dreck for a time. Now it's mostly a mess. .."
This tends to be perception only. I'd agree with @sjs382, a +3 browser here and I was surprised at the improvement in discussion from what I remembered. #2774
More informative articles: "Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris" Note the title difference. Stay away from gizmodo, it rots your brain.
I think, "Stay away from gizmodo, it rots your brain." is going a bit too far in this case. I know there's been a lot of talk about "linkbait" titles, but this one was clearly for fun/humour value. The whole article was tongue in cheek ("Spaceship-shaped"). I don't believe anyone on HN would actually read this article headline and believe alien spaceships were on their way (not with only 23 upvotes!).
"... I think, "Stay away from gizmodo, it rots your brain." is going a bit too far in this case... The whole article was tongue in cheek. I don't believe anyone on HN would actually read this article headline and believe ..."
Entertainment sans informative news - "to me" - is a flag for spin. A sign something or someone is broken on the Internet ~ http://xkcd.com/386/ :)
"... The liquid glass spray produces a water-resistant coating only around 100 nanometers (15-30 molecules) thick. On this nanoscale the glass is highly flexible and breathable. The coating is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids. ... Liquid glass spray is perhaps the most important nanotechnology product to emerge to date. It will be available in DIY stores in Britain soon ..."
Not news but a PR release. It pays to be cautious when making claims to be "new", "harmless" and "available in stores soon". The claim the particles are 100 nanometers is significant.
"... PM (Particulate Matter) has now been linked to a broad range of adverse health effects, both respiratory and cardiovascular, in epidemiologic and toxicologic research. ... The primary impetus for the 1997 PM NAAQS and the current proposed revision has been epidemiologic evidence that associates PM with increased risk for mortality ..." ~ "Small Particles with Big Effects", William N. Rom, M.D., M.P.H.", http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/full/173/4/365#BIB...
So I'd really like to know when materials like this are even suggested before they are released for commercial and human use without significant long term testing. Think asbestos and the long lead time for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestosis
"... I do understand the fear. It’s indisputable that Apple seeks large amounts of control over its products. So it’s a reasonable question to ask whether Apple sees the web itself, which they have no control over, as a problem. I don’t think that’s the case at all, though. The web, as a whole, is arguably the single most entrenched computer technology ever created. So where Apple seeks control with regard to the web is in the technology to render it ..."
The weakness or limitation of the Internet is it's Hubs. Compromise or take down a hub and the network fails. Crackers go for DNS. A smart business will try to monopolise publication of information, news and media. Publishing of information on the Web is a Hub. Hence the tussle between traditional newspapers and electronic publishers like Apple and news distributors like Google.
"... if you (aka myself) plan on having any part in tech (I'm studying CS) that you should blog ..."
Thinking about things isn't enough. Putting ideas into words lets you develop new ideas. Making something and writing about tells others about your new ideas. There is also another reason: you get to define yourself online. Nature might "abhor a vacuum" but google doesn't care. [0] It will associate something to a search term against your name. Better it be something you have written.
"... I was just about to post that link but you beat me to it ..."
Goldacre also came to my mind. I listened to an interview with Ben Goldacre and Robin Williams, his uncle discussing examples from his newly published book, "Bad Science" and MMR was the lead example ~ http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2008/2403358.ht...
Goldacre made the observation that while vaccination scares occurred in various countries a different layman explanation as to why it was scary occurred for each country. In the UK it was the link between MMR and Autism. In other countries it is something different. It's sad that mums are irrational on the subject of vaccination. It saves lives.
In the period January to September 2002, 32% of
the stories written about MMR mentioned Leo Blair,
as opposed to only 25% which mentioned Wakefield. [0]
