Sunday, February 16, 2003

Raymond Yee: After reading Jon Udell's latest article on Groove 2.5 (http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/02/15.html), I decided to install Tim Knip's interop tool -- I'm typing this message in Groove. I wonder whether I'll see it show up on my Radio blog. Raymond Yee | Response 2 2003-02-16 23:10 How will this be handled? Raymond Yee | Re: Testing Tim Knip's Groove/Radio Interop tool 2003-02-16 22:53 Haven't seen anything on my blog yet....hmm.... 11:00:01 PM

Monday, October 21, 2002

Mitch Kapor is blogging and hacking open source.. Mitch Kapor is blogging and hacking open source. [Hack the Planet]  More reporting on Kapor's new PIM effort! 8:04:35 AM

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

DocBook XSL stylesheets 1.54.1 released. The DocBook Open Repository project have released version 1.54.1 of the DocBook XSL stylesheets distribution, a set of stylesheets for use in converting DocBook XML documents to HTML, XSL-FO, Microsoft HTML Help, JavaHelp, and man pages. This release provides a number of significant enhancements. [xmlhack] 5:34:19 PM

Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Many Outputs — Many Inputs: XML for Publishers and E-book Designers [OLHeader] 8:46:05 PM

Phil Wolff has a lot of thinking about K-Logs that is worth reading. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 8:45:09 PM

The Yale University Library has just released its .... The Yale University Library has just released its report on the first year of its 1.5 year Mellon planning grant for preserving electronic journals through electronic archives. [FOS News] 8:43:02 PM

Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Commuting by Bicycle: Good or Bad?. This is an essay about the pros and cons of cycling as a form of commuting from the point of view of society in general, it also includes a short HOWTO on commuting by bicycle at the end. I originally started out by writing a diary rant on commuting by bike including vitriol on bus drivers and other cyclists and a final section on how things could be made better. [kuro5hin.org]  It's good to have this type of discussion -- I appreciate it as an avid bicyclist-commuter. 11:46:13 AM

The frequency of my blog entries has fallen off considerably. I have blogged only a few times a month for the last few months. From the lack of frequency, one could come to the conclusion that I thought blogging wasn’t important. I do think it is important I just lost my groove there for a bit. Dave Winer  recently pointed out that William Safire--columnist for the Sunday New York Times Magazine--explains blogging and defines the word “blog":   “Blog is a shortening of Web log. It is a Web site belonging to some average but opinionated Joe or Josie who keeps what used to be called a ''commonplace book'' -- a collection of clippings, musings and other things like journal entries that strike one's fancy or titillate one's curiosity. What makes this online daybook different from the commonplace book is that this form of personal noodling or diary-writing is on the Internet, with links that take the reader around the world in pursuit of more about a topic.” One of the most interesting parts of his comments is where William Saffire says: "To set one up (which I have not done because I don't want anyone to know what I think), you log on to a free service like blogger.com or xanga.com, fill out a form and let it create a Web site for you."   Wow, blogging scares Mr. Safire. Now that's power. Thank you Mr. Winer for the link.   In the mean time, never underestimate the power of the blogged word.   [Craig Burton: logs, links, life, and lexicon] 10:51:34 AM

Thursday, July 11, 2002

AIDS Debate Heats Up in Barcelona. Leaders discuss initiatives underway to disseminate drug therapies at the 14th international AIDS conference. Then why, ask critics, are drugs still unavailable to so many? Jordan Lite reports from Barcelona. [Wired News] 1:53:38 PM

Nokia to Join With I.B.M. in 2 Ventures on Software [New York Times: Technology] 1:48:27 PM

Do Libraries Really Need Books? [OLHeader] 1:45:51 PM

E-learning, Online Learning, Web-based Learning, or Distance Learning? [elearningpost] 1:45:14 PM

A Field Guide to Learning Objects [elearningpost] 1:44:54 PM

China: Bursting with brainpower [Yahoo News Headlines - XML] 1:44:31 PM

Lots of Flash, Even More Sizzle. A Flash expert will show off all his bells and whistles at this week's FlashForward extravaganza. Lisa Delgado reports from New York. [Wired News] 1:43:46 PM

Microsoft's Palladium. Ordinarily, Newsweek’s Steven Levy is one of the best tech journalists going, with an inordinately high grasp of low-level technology issues. But Levy really dropped the ball with his puff piece on Microsoft’s Palladium digital rights management (DRM) initiative. Microsoft’s plan is nothing less than to change the architecture of PC hardware to “address the concerns of security, privacy and intellectual property” according to Levy’s breathless piece. PC chip manufacturers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices reportedly have agreed to produce the special security chips needed to make the system work. “It’s a whole new class of processors not differentiated by speed, but security,” AMD’s Geoffrey Strongin told Levy. Palladium will reportedly manage the trustworthiness of any piece of data that runs on your computer by verifying where and who it came from. It also uses cryptography to protect the integrity of your documents and protects your system from viruses. The technology will safeguard your privacy through a collection of proxy services and can allow you to avoid spam through credentialed email. Read more.... [ARTS & FARCES internet] 1:42:06 PM

Salon: Can we trust Microsoft's Palladium? Could Palladium function as a kind of technological straitjacket, a Redmond-operated remote control over your data and, in consequence, your life? According to those who've looked closely at the proposal, the answer is a definite, unhelpful "maybe." But the better question is this: Why would Microsoft want to build such a restrictive system? [Tomalak's Realm] 1:41:03 PM

XNS Technical Specifications v1.0.. XNS Technical Specifications v1.0. We've been asking for this for over a year. Is it a coincidence that Liberty Alliance is announcing on Monday? In the past there was speculation that XNS might be the basis for Liberty Alliance. [Hack the Planet] 1:30:44 PM

Tuesday, July 02, 2002

More on Riemann Hypothesis [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]  Fun that nerds love math: Anonymous Coward writes "The NYTimes has a little story on a recent conference at New York University's Courant Institute where mathematicians gathered to discuss potential attacks on the Riemann hypothesis. The Clay Mathematics Institute had announced an award of a million dollars for a proof (or refutation) of the Riemann hypothesis during the millenial celebrations. That million dollars won't be worth much if it takes as long as that Last Theorem by Fermat to solve. There were some interesting observations such as the statistical distribution of the zeros looked just like calculations on the energy levels of large atoms." We did a related story on hard math problems two years ago. 9:30:45 AM

TCPA / Palladium FAQ. Quote: "Seen in these terms, TCPA and Palladium do not so much provide security for the user, but for the PC vendor, the software supplier, and the content industry. They do not add value for the user. Rather, they destroy it, by constraining what you can do with your PC - in order to enable application and service vendors to extract more money from you. No doubt Palladium will be bundled with new features so that the package as a whole appears to add value in the short term, but the long-term economic, social and legal implications require serious thought. " Comment: Nicely written FAQ [Serious Instructional Technology] I took a quick look and did think that it is a great FAQ -- useful materials to pull together to educate colleagues and friends about the platform of control that the internet is being pushed towards. 9:26:53 AM

A musician defends file-sharing, debunks the RIAA. Depending on your perspective, Janis Ian is either a struggling new science fiction writer or an established and well-respected recording artist with 17 albums to her credit. She's written a powerful debunking of the RIAA's claims about the effects of file-sharing on music-sales. Highly recommended reading from a music industry person who is far more articulate than, say, Courtney Love. Free exposure is practically a thing of the past for entertainers. Getting your record played at radio costs more money than most of us dream of ever earning. Free downloading gives a chance to every do-it-yourselfer out there. Every act that can't get signed to a major, for whatever reason, can reach literally millions of new listeners, enticing them to buy the CD and come to the concerts. Where else can a new act, or one that doesn't have a label deal, get that kind of exposure? We'll turn into Microsoft if we're not careful, insisting that any household wanting a copy for the car, or the kids, or the portable CD player, has to go out and "license" multiple copies. As artists, we have the ear of the masses. We have the trust of the masses. By speaking out in our concerts and in the press, we can do a great deal to damp this hysteria, and put the blame for the sad state of our industry right back where it belongs - in the laps of record companies, radio programmers, and our own apparent inability to organize ourselves in order to better our own lives - and those of our fans. If we don't take the reins, no one will. Link Discuss (via Yawl) [Boing Boing Blog] 9:25:24 AM

Managing and Using MySQL: Second Edition [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]  This reference might come in handy when I try out MySQL. 9:10:54 AM

Entertainment industry should hack with impunity. Representative Howard Berman (D-California), legislator for the entertainment industry, is said to be preparing legislation that would let copyright owners hack into their customers computers to stop file-swapping activities. Berman claims that his constituency needs legal protections to combat piracy and should be immune from prosecution under anti-hacking laws. “While P2P (peer-to-peer) technology is free to innovate new and more efficient methods of distribution that further exacerbate the piracy problem, copyright owners are not equally free to craft technological responses,” said Berman’s public statement. “This is not fair.” Berman has yet to introduce his proposed bill. When he does, I’ll have an analysis. [ARTS & FARCES internet] 9:08:59 AM

Facts, Figures From AIDS Report. The new United Nations report on the AIDS epidemic predicts that nearly 68 million people will die of the disease through 2020. Jordan Lite reports from New York. [Wired News] 9:08:09 AM

Staggering AIDS Report From U.N.. The AIDS epidemic is worse than was ever considered possible and isn't close to being controlled, a report from the United Nations says. Jordan Lite reports from New York. [Wired News]  I barely understand the scale of the AIDS epidemic....   9:07:47 AM

Harriet the Online Book Reviewer. ncreasingly, people are turning to the Web to seek advice from amateur reviewers and self-proclaimed experts. What motivates these people to offer their opinions for free, and why do people trust them? [elearningpost] I think that the rise of amateur and skilled book reviewers' getting attention is a  rather amazing (and wonderful)  development of the Web. 9:04:40 AM

© Copyright 2003 Raymond Yee.