FW: [IP] Gates Says Technology Will One Day Allow Computer Implants -- But Hardwiring's Not For Him

Gates doesn't want his body to be hooked up to a computer.

If I was responsible for Windows...

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Sunday, Jul 3, 2005 5:17 pm
Subject: [IP] Gates Says Technology Will One Day Allow Computer Implants -- But Hardwiring's Not For Him

Begin forwarded message:

From: "John F. McMullen" <observer@westnet.com>
Date: July 3, 2005 5:05:48 PM EDT
To: johnmac's living room <johnmacsgroup@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: [johnmacsgroup] Gates Says Technology Will One Day Allow Computer Implants -- But Hardwiring's Not For Him
Reply-To: johnmacsgroup@yahoogroups.com

From Techology Review --
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/07/ap/ap_070105.asp

Gates Says Technology Will One Day Allow Computer Implants --
But Hardwiring's Not For Him
By Rohan Sullivan

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Technological advances will one day allow
computers to be implanted in the human body -- and could help
the blind see and the deaf hear -- Bill Gates said Friday. But
the Microsoft chairman says he's not ready to be hardwired.

"One of the guys that works at Microsoft ... always says to me
'I'm ready, plug me in,"' Gates said at a Microsoft seminar in
Singapore. "I don't feel quite the same way. I'm happy to have
the computer over there and I'm over here."

Meshing people directly with computers has been a science
fiction subject for years, from downloading memories onto
computer chips to replacement robotic limbs controlled by
brain waves.

The fantasy is coming closer to reality as advances in
technology mean computers are learning to interact with human
characteristics such as voices, touch -- even smell.

Gates, whose Redmond, Washington-based company is spending
more than US$6 billion (euro4.95 billion) on research and
development this year to stay a world leader in software
development, was asked at the seminar whether he thought
computers would ever be implanted in the human brain.

He noted that cochlear implants and other medical implants
were already being used to treat hearing problems and some
conditions that cause constant pain, and were changing some
people's lives dramatically.

Cochlear implants, which employ digital pulses that the brain
interprets as sound, can help profoundly deaf people hear.

Advances were also being made on implants that can help fix
eyesight problems, Gates said.

These types of technologies would continue to be improved and
expanded, especially in areas where they would be "correcting
deficiencies," he said.

"We will have those capabilities," Gates said.

He cited author Ray Kurzweil, whom he called the best at
predicting the future of artificial intelligence, as believing
that such computer-human links would become mainstream --
though probably not for several generations.

Gates also predicted that the keyboard won't be replaced by
voice recognition software, and that the pen will make a
comeback -- although without ink. The three would form the
basic ways people will interact with their computers in the
future, he said.

He said when computer pen technology -- scratching words onto
a screen that a computer tries to read -- gets more
sophisticated it will do things like let people draw musical
notes and chemical signs, as well as recognize handwriting.

"Some people today underestimate the pen, because that
recognition software is at an early stage," Gates said. "But
it's on a very fast learning curve."

Speech would probably become the main way to input information
in mobile devices, though Gates noted the huge popularity of
mobile phone short messages services -- used almost
fanatically across Asia.

"In some cases -- mobile phones -- speech will be the primary
input (because) either the pen or the keyboard is a bit tough
-- although a lot of young people are awfully good with that little keyboard," Gates said.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Related:

Notebook:
There was no major announcement in Chairman Gates' speech at
this MS confab in Singapore. Still, it was a decent rundown of
what one guy is thinking about the future of microprocessor
technology -- a guy who controls around $6 billion in computer
R&D funds annually. -- By Paul Angiolillo

What Others Are Saying:

As Forbes noted (below), at the same MS conference, Gates
cited Internet security as his company's key challenge.

And, as News.com reported (also below), in an interview, the
Chairman also hinted that he may license Xbox gaming device
manufacturing to third parties.

-------------------------
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/07/01/afx2120303.html

AFX News Limited
Bill Gates says internet security is Microsoft's biggest
challenge
07.01.2005, 07:08 AM

SINGAPORE (AFX) - Internet security is Microsoft's greatest
challenge while developing mainstream technology to be able to
talk to a computer is a frontier about to be crossed, company
chairman Bill Gates said.

Delivering a wide-ranging lecture on technology to thousands
of delegates at a Microsoft forum here, Gates said giving
instructions to a personal computer by voice will become
mainstream in 'three to four years'.

Gates said Microsoft is investing 'tens of millions of
dollars' annually on this technology, although he expects the
computer keyboard will remain an important device.

Asked what is the biggest technology challenge for Microsoft
apart from piracy, Gates identified security on the Internet,
which he explained included privacy issues and controlling
spam e-mails.

'The thing we are investing the most in is our work on
security,' Gates said, adding that users should feel more
secure in giving out their credit card numbers and other
information online.

'I think the security challenge certainly for the forseeable
future will be the biggest thing.'

Gates also said the 'next big thing' on the information
technology horizon is pushing the functions of the Internet to
a higher level, such as making online searches faster and
easier.

'The Internet is so popular today that we need to just keep
evolving ... the way we navigate information -- we need to
make it easier to find.

'People are very impressed about searches today but it's
really quite poor compared to what it should be,' Gates said.

He said searching for information on the web directs the user
to a lot of links instead of giving out the information
immediately.

'(A) higher level of understanding (by the computer) -- that's
the biggest thing because it means you will write a lot less
code and you'll find anything you want very quickly,' he said.

Gates said the next 10 years will be 'far more interesting'
than the past 30 years because technology gains will change at
a faster pace the way people work and live.

2005 Forbes.com Inc
--------------------------------------------------------------

http://news.com.com/Gates+considers+Xbox+clones/2100-1043_3-5770507.html

Gates considering Xbox clones?
By Michael Singer

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is dropping hints that he may be
ready to license the brains of the Xbox gaming device to other
companies. It's a risky move to better compete with Sony's
PlayStation, according to one analyst.

In an interview with Nikkei Newspaper in Tokyo, Gates was
asked whether Microsoft would consider opening the manufacture
of Xbox units to third parties. Gates responded that "there is
nothing concrete" but said the company is always talking with
partners about how to expand the Xbox culture.

Gates declined to give details, such as which companies
Microsoft might be thinking about working with or if a license
would be extended to the underlying software of other
electronics equipment, such as handheld devices, PCs or home
digital media centers.

Microsoft's Xbox currently plays second fiddle to Sony's
PlayStation when it comes to sales, with Nintendo's GameCube
ranking third. The PlayStation makes up more than 60 percent
of the market, with the Xbox accounting for 29 percent of
sales and the GameCube rounding out the top-tier players with
11 percent, according to the latest statistics from NPD Group.

All three console makers are preparing their next-generation
gaming box. Microsoft's Xbox 360 is expected to hit store
shelves later this year, with Sony's PlayStation 3 available
soon after and Nintendo's Revolution console expected in 2006.

Despite the suggestion that Microsoft's device could be
cloned, Xbox representative Molly O'Donnell reaffirmed the
company's stance that the Xbox is exclusively a Microsoft
product.

"There's certainly a potential for other hardware companies to
manufacture Xbox some day in the future, but that is not
something we're focused on right now," she said.

Licensing the Xbox's underlying software to other
manufacturers is, of course, not outside the realm of
Microsoft's capabilities. The company found sterling success
in licensing its Windows operating system to PC makers.

But breaking the traditional proprietary mold of the game
console world is something no one else has tried and something
JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg says would be a
bold move on Microsoft's part.

"Clearly, everyone at Microsoft is thinking out of the box to
increase sales. I mean, look at the nontraditional way of
introducing the Xbox on MTV," Gartenberg said. "It sounds like
they are just testing the waters with a hybrid of the (white
box) PC model and the (proprietary hardware) video game
model."
AOL launches video search service
Will SAP sample hosted recipe?
XP Starter under the gun
Previous Next

Gartenberg said Microsoft's strategy may be centered on gaming
software. The majority of money made in the video game
industry comes from the games themselves, not from the
hardware. Recently, both Microsoft and Sony reported that the
newer models of their devices will be priced far less than the
cost needed to make them.

Microsoft's reasoning, Gartenberg said, may be that the more
Xbox-like consoles there were on the market, the easier it
would be to sell Xbox-branded games. That would mean Microsoft
would have a larger market for the titles it published. And it
could also put the squeeze on the PlayStation by inspiring
game developers to focus on titles for the Xbox and its
generic brethren.

"No one video game software developer just writes for Xbox,"
Gartenberg said. "But what it would do is tell publishers,
'Hey, look how many more consoles we are on.'

"Still," Gartenberg said, "Microsoft would have to make sure
that all the people who license their Xbox are up to their
standards, and at the end of the day they would still be
competing with Xbox sales."

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"When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
"Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
-- Arthur C. Clarke
"You Gotta Believe" - Frank "Tug" McGraw (1944 - 2004 RIP)
"To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you
are doing and that's real power." -- Ayn Rand

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The first steps to Johny Five.

iRobot's PackBot Explorer to hit the war-torn streets: "

It’s been a little while since we’ve heard much about iRobot’s
PackBot—we understand they’ve been busy making those things that have been scrubbing and vacuuming our floors—which since we first checked it out over a year ago has since been recruited by the armed forces for Iraqi and Afghani military ops. Their latest version of the PackBot, the Explorer, doesn’t seem too different from the original modular machine, but has a variety
of surveillance and intelligence options including three cameras. Well, nice to check in and hear it’s doing well for itself—just don’t get all blowed up, ok PackBot?





[Via SpaceDaily]

(Via engadget.com.)

Oops

Apparently, Commerce bank has moved the last time to deposit a check so that it clears the next morning from 3pm to 6pm.

This I find out after a ten block sprint at ten to three.

New York City needs one of these. Damn you Seattle.

When a Treo 650 connects to a web server, this is the ID it sends:

"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/hspr-H102; Blazer/4.0) 16;320x320"

Windows 98?

male angst on craig's list

Laura sent this along to me...

-=-=-=-

-=-=-

From:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/rnr/81550467.html

 

Re; Men Don't Know What They Want - Here's Why

---

Reply to: anon-81550467@craigslist.org
Date: 2005-06-29, 3:06AM PDT


Brilliant best of for the day.
---------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: anon-81548932@craigslist.org
Date: 2005-06-29, 2:07AM PDT


It's not the 1950s anymore. You are the new Modern Woman, and that means you're entitled not to marry the first man that shows interest in you. Fair enough, but what does that mean? Think of every guy that's ever shown interest in you. And interpret the word 'interest' loosely - whether he casually asked you out after school, wrote you a 14-page sonnet for Valentine's Day, or grabbed your ass at the bar. it's interest, isn't it? Think about how many of those guys you reciprocated interest in. Well, it couldn't have been that many, otherwise you'd be having sex with every guy that grabbed your ass, which I doubt is the case.


But rewind a bit, think about when you first started dating, not too long after the cooties stage. When Johnny the quarterback asked you out, weren't you thrilled? He had gorgeous eyes and a brilliant smile and he was the perfect boyfriend. until you found out he was dumb as a box of bricks. Well, Johnny didn't seem so perfect after that, and maybe you realized being hot wasn't the only thing you should look for in a guy.

So eventually you looked for your intelligent stud, shooting down other suitors who were otherwise physically attractive but dumb as posts, and finally found him in your college English class. Owen was a nice guy, he wrote incredible poetry and flattered you with his verses, but he was kind of a pussy. In fact, he was completely a pussy. He hated parties and thought binge drinking was "the bane of our generation" and basically seemed like he was already thirty-five years old. Well, you weren't 35 yet, so maybe it was time to find a fun guy. Owen might have made a good boyfriend for a girl someday, but you weren't that girl, and it wasn't someday yet.

You found Mr. Fun Guy at the frat party you went to that night. It took you awhile before you started talking to Mr. Fun Guy, known as 'Mike' to his friends and 'Shithead' to his fraternity brothers. He was actually a lot more intelligent than you thought, drunkenly yet coherently rambling on about George W. Bush and his corrupt foreign policy plans. And obviously he was fun, as he easily socialized with everyone in between his sixth and seventh keg stand. So you were thrilled when Mike gave you his attention, so thrilled that you gave him head that night.

And then you found out why he was called Shithead. You thought maybe it was some gross story involving actually feces, but the truth was much more disgusting:

"Well, most girls end up thinking he's a shithead, actually."

The next party you saw Mike at, his arm was wrapped around some other girl. Mike was a player. Well, fuck that shit. Fuck that shithead. If you just wanted ass, you could've gotten it from the other six or seven guys that hit on you that night. You really liked him, and you promised yourself then that you'd never give another guy head unless it was clear he really liked you too.

And so college ends and you take your degree and you go off to law school, like the other hordes of college students who don't know what to otherwise do with their lives. That's when you meet Trent, a different kind of flavor than the guys you're usually into, with the vintage jeans and piercings and tattoos. But Trent, well, he's hot and he's smart and he's fun, so you give him a chance even as all the other hipster/alternative/grunge/punk guys that have hit on you and fail whine, "that's not fair!"

Trent's smart, easily able to shift his expert opinion from subjects ranging from music to. well, music. But, well, he kind of has this problem with ambition. As the cliché goes, he smokes a lot of weed and he doesn't realty have a job, aside from selling the weed he has that he manages not to smoke. And sure, it's so superficial to care about income and you don't want a sugar daddy, but. well, it's about time you start thinking about the future, right? You don't want a family now, but you know you will someday, and seeing as you're going through grad school to ensure your future, shouldn't your future husband?

So, see ya Trent. And yeah, almost everyone in your law school classes have tried to make a pass at you, and you finally relent and date Curtis. Curtis is intelligent on every level you care about, he's socially capable and a great conversationalist with you and everyone you know, and obviously he has ambition if he's in law school. Great guy, except. he's not hot. He's just not. He's not hideous, but you admit to yourself that a physical connection is important, and maybe you're not as superficial as men tend to be, but you can't ignore the fact that you like a lean body and nice eyes. You know, like Johnny.

Where am I going with this?

This doesn't happen with men. We're not constantly being approached; we're doing the approaching. If you go on five dates, that probably meant you rejected forty other guys. You shouldn't be forced to date every guy you meet, especially when you determined they're just going to be another Johnny/Owen/Mike/Trent/Curtis, and you know it didn't work out with them.

But us? Well, we're usually one of the forty, and even if we're one of the five, we usually still end up dumped anyway. So seeing as we're being rejected 80-90% of the time, how the hell are we in any position to have any standards? How the fuck do we know what we want? When we show interest in girls that meet some very basic criteria, a girl that we find attractive, and maybe on a particularly picky day, a girl we can stand talking to for more than five minutes, and we're still getting rejected eight out of ten times. well, Jesus Christ. It's no wonder we think with our penis. Our brains can't think, because it has nothing to base thinking on.

So this is what happens to guys like me. We meet a girl that we find attractice and cool, and we want to date her. And lo and behold, she's the rare ten percent that want to date us. But then down the line other factors come into play. Maybe this particular girl is also pothead deadbeat, or we find out "cool" and "smart" are sometimes exclusive qualities, or maybe she just likes to stay in all the time and be boring. We don't find this out until weeks, or maybe months down the line, and that's when we realize "hey, maybe this isn't going to work out."

Ah yes, and the famous "fear of commitment" line comes out. Men are constantly backing out of relationships within weeks or months, before it gets serious, because of some innate inability to engage in a serious relationship. Except it has nothing to do with fear of commitment, we simply don't want to commit to someone we're not interested in. And unlike women, we don't get a chance to even figure out what we like, and what we don't like, because we're getting shot down all the goddamn time.

Oh, and we become "assholes" too, because during these weeks or months when we're trying to figure all this out, we're having sex. God forbid.

 

And now the Times comes out too against the new Freedom Tower design.

Church & State discussed by NYU law prof Noah Feldman.

He defines two very useful terms: legal secularism, and values evangelism.

He argues that both of these, the current opposing sides in the debate, are insufficient to resolve the crisis.

A critique of New York.

Would the Right Honourable Jedi MP please stand up.

Summer camp for atheists

This sounds like an excellent addition to Hindu Summer Camp.

Seriously.

Let me be the first to say it: The new World Trade Center / Freedom Tower design is crap.

Let me think of the words and phrases this design invokes:

Boring.

Suxor.

Now even more Libeskind free.

Phallic.

-=-

Where's the ground breaking awe inspiring science to make this a beautiful jaw dropping technical marvel?

I want columns of standing high energy sound waves playing their part in creating structural integrity fields.

I want a building twice as high as the old one, at 220 stories.

If not, I want a tower 1787 feet high. Enough about the Declaration, let it reflect the Convention. After all, everybody declares independence.

I want Curves.

I want Gargoyles.

And nanotech.

Worldchanging technology.

And Lasers.

Ok. Maybe not lasers.

With billions of dollars at stake, the visions from the competition to create the a new design for the world trade center have clashed with other more recent requirements, such as emergency service and office space considerations.

And once again, we are left with a shadow of what might have been.

To what might have been.

By the way, has anybody noticed how damn good Wikipedia's article on Roe v Wade is?

I'm getting sick of people quoting the law without understanding it at all. (I'm guilty as charged too.)

Federal jurisdiction has long been extended beyond simple control over interstate matters, with or without congressional bullying by threats to withhold hundreds of millions in highway funds to non compliant states. The Civil Rights Acts in the 60s affected businesses with no interstate commerce links. You can imagine how little influence those laws would have had in instances where a restaurant was being forced for the first time to serve black patrons in states that vehemently legislated otherwise.

Generally, people tend to wring their hands over federal interference in state affairs and smoke the federalism pipe when they don't agree with federal policies and vice versa.

Journalist's blog documents DEA's war on California: "Cory Doctorow:
My friend Ann Harrison is covering the ongoing skirmishes in the drug war in California. The state of California has legalized growing and distributing pot to people who have medical marijuana prescriptions, but the DEA has begun to arrest these people on federal charges (despite the fact that federal laws only have jurisdiction over interstate matters, so pot grown and distributed in California is outside the DEA's jurisdiction).

The DEA is conducting this war like a guerrilla attack on the people of California. Private citizens who record their busts from public sidewalks are assaulted by DEA agents who try to erase their camera-memory. The press-conferences are closed to the public. The dispensary raids concentrate on computer records of patients and growers, and many of those arrested face ten-year minimum sentences.

Ann is bent on blowing the lid off of this. While the stories she files with newspapers get trimmed to 'news haiku,' on her blog she's publishing transcripts of the secret press-conferences, information on the use of local law to do the Feds' bidding, and the myriad ways that the DEA is cooking the process to wage its war on Americans.

Q: Does the California law that permits patients to use medical cannabis have any bearing at all on protecting the medical cannabis dispensaries?

Pena: Before I answer that question, one thing, and I think it is really important that I forgot to mention and I think it's a public concern. On these three grow locations that we visited, they all had illegal wires tapping into PG&E the outlets all over the houses, very unsafe. I'm sure that you have heard of the situations were houses have been burning down, this causes a great deal of concern for us.

Like I said once you see that CD which we are handing out you will see the wiring system which is what causes the fires that were all contained in the three different areas that we went to. So this is how some of our houses are getting burned down.

What is your question again?

Link"

(Via Boing Boing.)

So that's what bills of attainder are.

One party state watch: Congressional...: "

One party state watch: Congressional Republicans warn Major League Baseball against allowing George Soros to take an ownership stake in the Washington Nationals.

Roll Call reports that the following from Government Reform Chair Tom Davis (R-VA): 'I think Major League Baseball understands the stakes. I don't think they want to get involved in a political fight ... I don't think it's the Nats that get hurt. I think it's Major League Baseball that gets hurt. They enjoy all sorts of exemptions' from anti-trust laws.

Do these jokers need to be reminded of the constitution's prohibition of bills of attainder.

"

(Via Talking Points Memo.)

Apparently Bush the younger was on television tonight attempting to link Bin Laden to Iraq.

Meanwhile, Canada has legalized Same Sex Marriage.


Also, has anybody else noticed the story about General Motors Management not being allowed to sell purchase or sell shares in GM, the policy to last indefinitely?

history

I met somebody today who used to own an Apple Lisa.

Do you have any idea how expensive those were?

Google introduced Video.google.com today.

You can apparently search for video, and play it using a slightly updated version of VLC .0.8.2 (which came out yesterday.)

The version that Google puts up for download is for windows only, and uses ActiveX.

I have bacon in the freezer I really should be "taking care" of pretty soon.

This device sounds great. How is the bacon cooled overnight though? Perhaps a nice modification would be a connected tank of Liquid Nitrogen to make sure that the bacon sits nice and cool.

Wake n' Bacon: wake up and smell the... bacon?: "src="http://img.engadget.com/common/images/3868866987697409.jpg?0.44719566945168576" align="top" border="1" height="163" hspace="4" vspace="4" width="420" />

There are oh so many ways to bring home that bacon, but only a precious few to get those lovely saturated fats ready
for your system. But thanks to the Wake n’ Bacon, now you too can shave a few steps off your morning process while also
managing to add a little oily greasiness to your environs. As soon as your alarm goes off, boom, halogen lamp broils
you up some bacon in about 20 minutes no problem—just don’t keep smacking the snooze button, or you might wind up with
some seriously charred remains.



[Via Near Near Future]

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© 2005 Weblogs, Inc.

Ads by Google

"

(Via engadget.com.)

The question of whether we are spending enough money to protect the troops in Iraq can best be described by asking the question, "Do American Government officials travel in US Military vehicles when traveling in Iraq?"

The Answer.

Air Guitar World Championships.

There are videos.

Does the use of the phrase "London-Rome Axis" bother anybody else?

If I didn't have dinner plans, I would be here:

Giant Robot: "

Today, the store Giant Robot, known in L.A. and San Francisco for its selection of cool toys, books and clothes (hello, Mr. Dob), opens a New York location - Giant Robot New York - in the East Village. And tonight, there's an opening reception from 6-10PM, with sponsors like Dumpling Man, Glaceau, Uglydoll and Matador/Beggars (we suspect there will be eats, good tunes, and, hopefully, a lifesize Jeero!)! Plus, the artwork of Eishi Takaoka (whose sculpture is on the cover of Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore) will be displayed for through July.

Giant Robot

437 East 9th Street

Between 1st Avenue and Avenue A

"

(Via Gothamist.)

Here and Now

Here and Now
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

David Enders (on the left), before another trip to Baghdad.

H5N1 why don't you love me.

Has a certain ring to it, doesn't it?

Say what you will about AOL, their new AIM.com mail service (which gives everybody with a AIM screen name a mail account) offers 2Gb of IMAP mail.

This will complement my gmail account very very nicely...

Most any Sigur Rós news is good news.

MUSIC: Sigur Rós "More Rock and Roll" on New Album: "Sigur Rós have spent over a year and a half working on their fourth album, according to their recent interview with Icelandic newspaper morgunbla?i? (what vowels are those?), and the results might surprise long-time fans of the band.

The songs i heard didn't exactly fall under the short pop/rock structure which is rumoured to be the theme of the new album, but it's clear that there is a transition in style here: the songs are more focused, while at the same time more 'rock and roll' than previous material. Kjartan, the keyboardist, goes on to say later in the interview that this is precisely what sigur rós is all about: rock and roll. Somehow it is a more popular opinion that the members of Sigur Rós are tea drinking new age hippies who write songs about elves and lava. Jónsi exclaims 'no, we only drink hardcore coffee around these parts'. but then he adds with a smirk 'well, hardcore coffee topped off with a little soy milk'.

Their official site says that the as-yet-unnamed (as if we'd understand it, anyway) album will feature ten songs, has been completed, and is being mixed in New York as we speak.

Suddenly i decide to make a bold move, and ask plainly whether there is any ideology behind the new album. Kjartan does the talking: 'Hmm. It was just a natural progression from the last album. The last album was so heavy, so it felt better to rock this one out. Damn, that was a really lame sentence.'

[Hat-tip: One Louder]

(Written by: Keith)

"

(Via SuicideGirls: News Wire.)

Check out the picture associated with the article.

They have found a second instance of mad cow in the US in less than two weeks.

Factoring in the industrial capture of the US Agriculture Department, this is likely in indicator of a much much larger problem. Now would probably be a good time to stop eating regular beef from your supermarkets, and asking questions when you go out to eat at any restaurant.

Thank the gods I can afford Organic Beef.

I guess it is pork from here on out.

pissing off the roommates

I threw out the roommate's coffee into the kitchen sink.

It was sitting on the island in the kitchen on this warm day, all
lonely.

I opened it, checking to see if it still looked good, but it had a
old milk in coffee thing going.

The small paper cup it was in, a greek cup, was tossed, with its
white plastic cover, slightly stained, unceremoniously into the trash
can, joining the empty can of sweetened condensed milk.

Alas, the roommate still wanted yesterday's coffee.

Alas.

Google for @$$ to @$$.

Jeopardastic

Brandy (yet another friend from Ted' s home town) won on Jeopardy
tonight.

College Quiz Bowlers rock.

gmail tempations

Gmail dangles html editing buttons in front of my face.

So tempting. No. I must resist.

Also, must stop gratuitous use of the ellipsis.

..

FW: [IP] Flag-Burning Amendment and Another Word War

Note that the Daily Show "accidentally" juxtaposed a patriotic sparkler and a small American flag, leading to a flag burning, earlier this week.

To the tune of "killing me softly" now:

Burning my flag for my country...
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Thursday, Jun 23, 2005 6:29 am
Subject: [IP] Flag-Burning Amendment and Another Word War

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Date: June 22, 2005 10:41:29 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: Flag-Burning Amendment and Another Word War

Dave,

The proposed amendment reads:

"The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration
of the flag of the United States."

Since it specifically says "physical," we can assume that non-physical representations such as illustrations, photos, and so on are not
covered.

But what does "desecration" mean in this context?

Public burning is obvious, but what about hanging the flag in
unusual orientations, making subtle (or obvious)
alterations/additions, or juxtaposing the physical flag with
unsavory or unpopular items or imagery? We've been trying for
decades to deal with the meaning of "obscenity" -- are we now
setting up for similar battles over yet another word?

One thing seems pretty certain. The passage of such an amendment
would convert the currently very rare, generally ignored act of flag
burning in this country into a potent symbol of political protest
with vastly expanded power to draw attention. As such, we're likely
to see a massive *increase* in flag burning -- and subsequent
crackdowns -- as a result.

One hopes that this isn't what the proponents of the amendment
actually have in mind.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@eepi.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
- Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com

-------------------------------------

If you're a history/sci-fi buff, you should pick up Kim Stanley Robinson's excellent The Years of Rice and Salt. A lot more on this in there.

When Zheng He sailed the ocean blue: "

History buff that I am I was shocked to learn from July's issue of National Geographic Magazine that I had never heard of Admiral Zheng He. His story is movie-worthy and his exploits provide a new lens through which one may view South Asia during what were the Dark Ages in Europe and much of Asia. The article about Zheng He was brought to my attention by my father (because the article that immediately follows it was about the Mars rovers). From the article by Frank Viviano [I transcribed most of the quotes below since the full article is not available online]:

Exactly 600 years ago this month the great Ming armada weighed anchor in Nanjing, on the first of seven epic voyages as far west as Africa-almost a century before Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas and Vasco da Gama's in India. Even the European expeditions would seem paltry by comparison: All the ships of Columbus and da Gama combined could have been stored on a single deck of a single vessel in the fleet that set sail under Zheng He.




Its commander was, without question, the most towering maritime figure in the 4,000-year annals of China, a visionary who imagined a new world and set out consciously to fashion it. He was also a profoundly unlikely candidate for admiral in anyone's navy, much less that of the Dragon Throne.




The greatest seafarer in China's history was raised in the mountainous heart of Asia, several weeks' travel from the closest port. More improbable yet, Zheng was not even Chinese-he was by origin a Central Asian Muslim. Born Ma He, the son of a rural official in the Mongol province of Yunnan, he had been taken captive as an invading Chinese army overthrew the Mongols in 1382. Ritually castrated, he was trained as an imperial eunuch and assigned to the court of Zhu Di, the bellicose Prince of Yan.




...Renamed Zheng after his exploits at the battle of Zhenglumba, near Beijing, he was chosen to lead one of the most powerful naval forces ever assembled.

"

(Via Sepia Mutiny.)

TECHNOLOGY: Microchip Pioneer Dies at 81: "Over at TotalFark, we call this [sad]

DALLAS - Nobel laureate Jack Kilby, whose 1958 invention of the integrated circuit opened the way for the microchips that are the brains of today's computers, video games, DVD players and cell phones, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 81.



[. . .]



In 1958, his first year working with Texas Instruments in Dallas, Kilby used borrowed equipment to build the first integrated circuit, in which all the components were fabricated in a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip. He also co-invented the hand-held calculator.



Kilby's fingernail-size integrated circuit, a forerunner of the microchip used in today's computers, replaced the bulky and unreliable switches and tubes that had been used in the first computing devices.



He won the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics for his work, which according to the Nobel citation 'has laid the foundation of modern information technology, particularly through their invention of rapid transistors, laser diodes and integrated circuits.'

Without Mr. Kilby's work, there would be no Suicide Girls . . . and a world without hot goth boobies on my computer is a world I don't even want to think about. So thank you, Mr. Kilby. May you rest in peace.



The full story, including some pretty cool thoughts from his friends and co-workers, is at Yahoo News,

(Written by: WilWheaton)

"

(Via SuicideGirls: News Wire.)

Nooooooooooo

Nooooooooooo
Originally uploaded by Valeriekt.

Cyrus is a man.

US Dept of Breakfast

US Dept of Breakfast
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

E pluribus bacon,

In bacon, veritas.

Shana's old laptop

Shana's old laptop
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

The Powerbook 190cs.



"This is a prop"

"(for funny)"

I am a terrible person

Shana's birthday presents are sitting in my fridge.

And there they shall stay, all weekend.

Before Warren posts it, a two faced cat.

Stop Hurting My Country

When traveling along a curve, you can take a tangent from the point you happen to be at, which will show you the direction you would travel if you flew off of the curve at that moment.

The curve I'm plotting in my head tends to travel through each disturbing story I read about the direction of this country. If you want links, you can ask for them, but it shouldn't be too hard to find them for yourself.

Sixteen year old girls who only speak english being sent back to Bangladesh because they dared to, like many many other high schoolers, explore their faith.

Congressmen who decide that Crony Capitalism is too moderate of a position to stand on, and unabashedly form symbiotic by the book corrupt relationships with companies in their districts they funnel government contracts to.

White House political flacks that edit scientific articles for content based upon their past experiences lobbying against the same.

DOJ lawyers reducing the requested judgement against the Tobacco industry by 120 Billion dollars. (Yes, I have read the rebuttal on this issue by the DOJ lead attorney on this case - but you can not expect to be listened to as an impartial participant in this issue when the higher ups are former attorneys for... the tobacco industry.)

Bye Bye PBS?

Bitching about Democracy in the middle east, in countries such as Iran, and Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan.

This all in the last several days.

What bothers me the most is two years ago, there was at least a semblance (ah the rose colored glasses of looking at yesteryear) of playing by some of the rules.

Be wary of conflicts of interest, be honest with and respect the people you represent. Is this too much to ask?

In the eighties, Reagan's appointee to the EPA James Watts said that there was no reason to worry about the environment since the second coming was at hand.

I now feel that is how the Republicans in power feel about the country. Don't worry. The rapture is at hand.

The tangent from where we are right now is pretty grim. The world doesn't respect us. We are travelling on inertia. We are governed by born again believers in the Great Chain of Being. Where's a Great Awakening when we need one? Billy Graham in a stadium just isn't cutting it any more.

And if you think I am unnecessarily bitter, I'd just like five minutes with your god. Outside. Right now.

Half-male, half-female, all crab: "David Pescovitz:
Fishermen caught a crab in the lower Chesapeake Bay that's literally half male, half female. Among other differences, male blue crabs have deep blue claws while females' claw tips look like they were painted with red nail polish. The fishermen noticed that this particular crab had one of each. Researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science say that the condition, known as bilateral gynandromorphism, is caused by a 'chromosomal mishap.' Studying the rare animal could increase understanding of crab sexual development and breeding behavior. From the Washington Post:

Before turning over the crab to the scientists, (boat captain David) Johnson and other watermen conducted their own experiment into its sex life, with bewildering results. They dropped a female crab, which was just about ready to mate, into its tank.



First, the half-and-half crab cradled the female under his legs, as a male crab would do in preparation for mating.



Then, the crab seemed to lose interest in the female and let her go, Johnson said.



Then a day later . . .



'He ate half of her,' Johnson said.

Link to Washington Post article, Link to Virginia Institute press release (Thanks, Vann Hall!)"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Best fake quote evar.

Mr. President, Democrats are claiming you don't have a mandate. Would
you like one? It's $200 per hour. - Jeff Gannon

jwz points me to this blog, which has this beautiful piece:

It's a measure of our country's desperation that many hopes among US government officials are pinned to the just-completed 1000-mile oil pipeline between Baku on the Caspian Sea and the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean. The idea is to get oil from Kazakhstan on the far eastern side of the Caspian sea through several other former Soviet states, bypassing a shorter, older route through the Black Sea, and creating an alternative to the ongoing horror show of the Persian Gulf.



The main problem is the idea that the American economy, and the easy-motoring lifestyle that holds it hostage, will now depend on a 42-inch wide oil pipe running through nations fraught with Muslim-Christian conflict on top of post-Soviet gangster politics. The good news is that the $4 billion pipe is buried underground so it will not be vulnerable to the small arms so abundant in that part of the world: shoulder-launched missiles, rocket propelled grenades, or .50 caliber bullets. The bad news is that it is only a few feet underground and can still be blown up by five pounds of Semtech strapped to a donkey.

They may be hypocrites but damn it they're our hypocrites.

Blaming the Victim: the latest twists in the Mukhtar Mai saga: "

We reported earlier on Mukhtar Mai / Mukhtaran Bibi, who fought back after having been savagely raped on the orders of her village jirga. Instead of staying silent, she took her rapists to court, and used the compensation awarded by the government to open a school for girls. Her bravery and class made her a cause celebre all over the world.

Unfortunately, her story didn't end there. Recently, she was invited to come speak in the US by ANAA (Asian American Network Against the Abuse of Women). In response the Pakistani government flipped out and put her under house arrest. She is banned from leaving the country, and hasn't been able to see her lawyer.

In phone conversations in the last few days, she said that when she tried to step outside, police pointed their guns at her. To silence her, the police cut off her land line... Ms. Mukhtaran continued her protests by cellphone. But at dawn yesterday the police bustled her off, and there's been no word from her since. Her cellphone doesn't answer.

Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer who is head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said she had learned that Ms. Mukhtaran was taken to Islamabad, furiously berated and told that President Pervez Musharraf was very angry with her. She was led sobbing to detention at a secret location. She is barred from contacting anyone, including her lawyer. [NYT]

Incredibly, the government claims it is just trying to protect her:

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters in Islamabad that any security measures in place were for the protection of Ms Mai. [BBC]

And the US government has made it clear that it is unconcerned:

... on Friday, just as all this was happening, President Bush received Pakistan's foreign minister in the White House and praised President Musharraf's 'bold leadership.' [NYT]

"

(Via Sepia Mutiny.)

FW: [IP] Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger for x86 Leaked?

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Monday, Jun 13, 2005 6:39 pm
Subject: [IP] Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger for x86 Leaked?

Begin forwarded message:

From: Benjamin Black <ben@layer8.net>
Date: June 13, 2005 4:03:45 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger for x86 Leaked?

Dave,

While something claiming to be Tiger x86 might be on the warez sites, those hoping to have OS X on their PC will be sorely disappointed when it boots (unless they have a thing for really disturbing porn).

Ben

-------------------------------------
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/

This is what I've been thinking about the last several days, before I bought my air conditioner. But this setup would work especially well hooked up to a faucet...

Good thing I don't pay for water.

jwz wrote xscreensaver...


I for one am much looking forward to Sunbird...

Vendor lockin sucks.

Apple lockin sucks harder.

that was, in fact, the final straw.: "

Remember last week, when I tried to buy exactly the same audio card that 99.99% of the world owns and convince Linux to be able to play two sounds at once? Yeah, turns out, that was the last straw. I bought an iMac, and now I play my music with iTunes.

This took... let me see... just about zero effort. Well, I still have to go buy some longer audio cables, but that's it.

I plugged a mouse with three buttons and a wheel into the Mac, and it just worked without me having to read the man page on xorg.conf or anything. Oh frabjous day.

Go ahead and say 'I told you so' if it makes you feel better.

Anyway, this means several things:

• You shouldn't be holding your breath waiting for a new release of Gronk.

• I also got to stop using the crapware known as Mozilla Sunbird; now I can use iCal, which Just Works (for example, the alarms actually go off, and it doesn't periodically shit a WAV file into my .ics file.)

• The future direction of xscreensaver has become... highly ambiguous.

I'm still using my other Linux machine to read mail and run XEmacs, but I'm hoping to wean myself of that eventually, one way or another. If all goes well, then in six months or so, the only Linux machines I'll ever have to touch will have no video or sound cards in them at all.

The only thing I couldn't figure out how to do: compile xscreensaver. It stopped working some time between OSX 10.3 and 10.4 due to some GTK/Fink stupidity where pkgconfig/gobject-2.0.pc never gets installed. I'm trying not to care. That's going quite well.

Dear Slashdot: please don't post about this. Screw you guys."

(Via jwz.)

dork love

Dave's DVD player remote has the same battery as my first graphing calculator (which used three), the Casio 7500, which had 26 user accessible registers and a whole 4 kilobytes of NVRAM. The manual that came with it had a program you could enter into the calculator to solve quadratic equations. I wrote my first program on that machine, a clock that updated every minute, that had a timing loop that had to be hand adjusted.

Sigh.

Did I mention the battery in the remote is almost dead.

Dave? Are you listening? You need 1 CR2025 battery.

Z is for Zedra

Procrastination is hitting full steam this morning.
First, Neil Gaiman on Tea. I'm not quite sure what it is about British writers that brings them to write about tea. I have a hankering suspicion that it may be Love.

I had a discussion with a roommate last night about the defense of the religious. For the record, I'm not opposed to the religious. I'm opposed to the religious ignorant - those that cloak their ignorance in a mantle of religion, and thus denigrate all other religious people.

Now for some gleeful moral equivalence: If a vocal minority of ice cream eaters (say in the larger tens of millions) suddenly takes to fits of savagely beating a good friend of yours (for the sake of the argument, let us call him progress), you might begin to give the ice cream eaters (who coincidentally largely look away and focus on sucking on their cones) some dirty looks.

Just a leetle bit, no?

An article at the nyt reports on the growing movement of the religious ignorant to spread bigotry through the land:

Georgia State Senator Nancy Schaefer on gay/straight alliance clubs in (gay/straight integrated) high schools:

"I just don't feel like homosexual clubs have anything to do with readin', writin' and 'rithmetic."

And now for something completely different

I had forgotten about Pokey.

No longer.

Store Wars

Thanks to Kt for this cute gem:

http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.html

I miss Bill Nye.

Two Words: Road Trip.

Singing at the gates or Mordor: "

Spamalot and The Light in the Piazza were the big winners at Sunday’s 59th annual Tony Awards. Any early favorites for next year? From April’s Detroit Free Press:

The next big thing in theater, the musical version of ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ is scheduled for its world premiere in 2006 in Toronto. Previews won’t begin until Feb. 2 and the show has yet to be cast but producer Kevin Wallace offered a preview Thursday night to tour operators and other invited guests at the Renaissance Center.




Emphasizing ‘LOTR’s’ human aspects before he mentioned its special effects, Wallace called the show ‘as powerful and emotional a story as you’ve ever experienced in the theater.’




Some particulars: The show will run 3 1/2 hours, including two intermissions; the music is by Indian composer A.R. Rahman (‘Bombay Dreams’) and Finnish folk group Varttina, and there will be Hobbits mingling with playgoers before the show.

Playbill.com recently noted that advance tickets are already being snatched up:

In the first week of sales toward the February 2006 Toronto world premiere of the musical The Lord of the Rings, theatregoers snapped up $7 million (Canadian) in tickets, a spokesperson for the Toronto producers confirmed.




One might cringe imagining a quirky show tune of sweet admonition from Frodo called ‘Oh, Sam!,’ about hobbit pal Sam’s dogged faithfulness. Don’t expect it: Traditional musical theatre is not what India’s most popular composer, A.R. Rahman, and the Finnish group Värttinä, collaborating with Christopher Nightingale, write.




What would the elves sing? What is the sound a hobbit dances to? Can an orc carry a tune?




Expect varied Asian- and European-influenced sounds to suggest the many tribes of the story.

No word yet as to whether or not the Orcs will dance Bollywood style in the background.

"

(Via Sepia Mutiny.)

Köszönöm to Antonia enlightening me on the correct spelling of köszönöm.

Also, Shanakah nears...

I want gills.

It amuses me to no end that the Times does reviews of hip-hop albums.

Where is the stodginess of that old fashioned journalism?

FW: [IP] Clyde Prestowitz: Globalization game

This reminds me a discussion I had with Ziv this morning about the problem with Consumption's valuation in GDP.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Sunday, Jun 5, 2005 7:58 am
Subject: [IP] Clyde Prestowitz: Globalization game

Begin forwarded message:

From: "John F. McMullen" <observer@westnet.com>
Date: June 5, 2005 4:58:15 AM EDT
To: johnmac's living room <johnmacsgroup@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: Clyde Prestowitz: Globalization game
From the Boston Globe -- http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/31/globalization_game/

Globalization game
By Clyde Prestowitz

US PRESSURE on Beijing to revalue its yuan is now dominating the news, but China is only following Japan as a manifestation of a much bigger problem. Globalization is broken. As currently structured, it is undermining US productive capability and becoming unsustainable.

Without fundamental change in the rules of globalization, any conceivable yuan revaluation now won't have much impact on world economic imbalances. Remember that economists said a 20-30 percent revaluation of Japan's yen (then at 260 yen to the dollar) would balance trade in the 1980s. But the yen has more than doubled since then, and Japan still maintains a large trade surplus both globally and with the United States, as do all of the world's major economies.

The real problem is that globalization is a different game for many countries than it is for America. While China's peg of the yuan to the dollar is now the focus of criticism, most Asian countries have long managed their currencies to remain weak against the dollar in order to stimulate their exports. Japan has spent over $300 billion in currency intervention in recent years to keep the dollar up and the yen and export prices down. In addition, many countries offer tax holidays, financial incentives, and protected markets to attract new facilities in ''strategic" industries that no one expects to move just because currencies fluctuate.

These actions follow from policies specifically aimed at accumulating large trade and dollar surpluses as a matter both of stimulating growth from exports and of assuring national economic sovereignty by avoiding dependence on foreign lenders.

While US state governors extend financial incentives to attract investment, they have only peanuts to offer compared to foreign countries, and, of course, do not control their own currencies. The federal government has long shown no interest in attracting foreign factories to or keeping US factories on its shores. Rather, America's emphasis is entirely on consumption-led growth. Banks aggressively offer credit cards to students with only part-time jobs. Home equity loans with tax deductible interest payments are used to pay for vacation trips. Not only does the White House call for tax cuts in wartime, but tells consumers it's their patriotic duty to buy more.
Americans at all levels really do believe that debt and deficits don't matter.

The confluence of America's consumerism with the strategic, export- led growth policies of many other countries has produced a world with one net consumer, the United States, which now consumes about $700 billion a year more than it produces. All other major economies are net sellers, depending directly or indirectly on US-bound exports for much or all of their growth. Because America consumes more than it makes, it must borrow from abroad to finance its excess consumption.
In a kind of vendor finance program, a few foreign central banks provide the financing by buying US Treasury bills and other US assets.

Thus, globalization has evolved into a kind of pyramid scheme. To maintain global growth, the United States must consume and borrow ever more while foreign banks buy ever more US Treasuries so their producers can export ever more.

America has long been ambivalent about this situation. Consumers love the low import prices, US CEOs love the foreign tax holidays, and the
US government loves the foreign lending that helps keep US interest rates low. But the chronically overvalued dollar and the foreign investment incentives also cause a steady transfer of production and technology abroad while putting downward pressure on wages and building large foreign claims on future US income. This results in political pressures and US charges of unfairness against trading partners with big surpluses. In the past, cosmetic ''fixes" like
''voluntary" export restraint agreements were used to relieve pressure while the fundamental forces kept operating until the next
''fix."

Now the sustainability of the system has been put in question by the entrance of 3 billion new players from China, India, and the former
Soviet bloc at a moment when the Internet and global air express have negated time and distance along with the long standard economic assumptions that labor, capital, and technology don't move between countries.

These new players are unusual. While having the low wages of developing countries, several hundred million of them have first world skills. That they are effectively next door and also planning to grow by exporting to US markets dramatically increases the pressure on an already stressed system. Even for America there are ultimate limits on consumption and borrowing. US borrowing already absorbs 80 percent of the world's available savings. At 100 percent the global economy will be in deep crisis.

The only way to avoid that is to insist that the globalization game be played the same way by all its players. Sure, China needs to revalue, but without other big changes, globalization as we know it will be on life support.

Clyde Prestowitz is the author of the recently published ''Three
Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the
East."

-------------------------------------

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/

FW: [IP] !!! More on Apple to Ditch IBM

Now this sounds quite credible.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Saturday, Jun 4, 2005 7:47 pm
Subject: [IP] !!! More on Apple to Ditch IBM

Begin forwarded message:

From: Anthony Baker <anthony@thinkbigideas.com>
Date: June 4, 2005 6:06:43 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: More on Apple to Ditch IBM

Dave,

This is a post from Anonymous Coward over on Slashdot. He's provided a lot of great insight on Apple issues in the past and this message, in response to another post, seems to make a lot of sense.

If true, it just means that Apple might be arranging a deal with
Intel to have them manufacture PowerPC chips for them -- not switching to the x86 chipset.

-----------

You are close but your anger is clouding your vision. I will fix up your list.

- IBM and Apple sign a multi chip agreement with very specific clock speed, power usage, production quantities and target dates built into the contract. the first chip is the PPC970.

- Jobs and IBM publicly trumpets that the chip will hit 3GHz in a year's time which is actually well below the contractual promises IBM made.

- Jobs and IBM get humiliated by the fact they didn't even come close and still aren't there after 2 years.

- Jobs throws constant fits and points out that IBM has missed every metric they contractually promised to meet. Jobs also points out that the way the contract is structured that Apple now has a right to a significant chunk of IBM IP and the right to shop for a manufacturer who is able to produce any and all of the chips under the original agreement.

While this is unfolding, IBM has been making the same pie in the sky promises to Sony and MS. As with Apple, IBM begins significantly scaling back the promises made to Sony and MS.

- Jobs get jealous of the attention paid to said console manufacturers

- Jobs exercises the options available and IBM gets taken to the cleaners.

I will restate. The contract Apple has with IBM has a "Moto" contingency. There are extremely tough provisions in the contract that Apple insisted upon to prevent another Motorola scenario from happening. IBM had no problem with the provisions because they were positive the could beet the goals by two in half the time. IBM fucked up badly.

Apple now owns a large amount of PPC IP and Intel will now be manufacturing and designing PPC chips.

One last comment on the Altivec "debacle." Considering that 99% of the chips IBM will manufacture over the next five years will have
Altivec or a close derivative, the debacle is IBM's blindness to the importance of vector processing for so long.
-------------------------------------

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/

Ok, this news is everywhere. Having said that, I'm very very curious to see how apple pulls off promoting its outdated PPC hardware since people know that there's new hardware coming.

Palm has had this problem for the last year, where they announced PalmOS 6.0 (Cobalt), and then immediately pointed out that there was a version coming right after that with the features everybody wants. Not surprisingly, everybody has been waiting for PalmOS 6.1. Then Palm announced that they were switching to Linux, and we all want to wait till that comes out...

There's also the story of the PC maker in the early 80s which started selling a model, and then immediately announced a better model that wasn't going to be out for many months. Everybody stopped buying their current model, and Osbourne went out of business shortly thereafter.

But I hope that Apple does succeed at this, and I look forward to making a tidy profit installing OS X on your PC (because say what they will, we WILL find ways to run OS X on your PC.)

Steve Jobs, like Howard Hughes, Mystifies: "

Some men dream the future. He built it.

Steve Jobs, the maverick who has architected one of the greatest comebacks in the history of Silicon Valley, continues to prove that he is a modern day Howard Hughes. Unpredictable, charming, loving, petulant, and perhaps more than anything deviously mysterious. But more than anything brilliant. When everyone including Intel’s own CEO designate said, that it would be a cold day in hell, before Apple uses Intel’s x86 chips, Jobs goes ahead and does it anyway.

It is a Machiavellian move, directed to rattle the Rajahs of Redmond. It is a subtle message - all things equal, Apple OS is much better than Microsoft’s Windows and the market place will prove it. You might think it is bit of conjecture, but look at the reality of the situation. Now Apple can get Intel’s marketing subsidies. The economics of x86 that Microsoft so adroitly has made work over decades now start to benefit its rival, in the mainstay PC business. The price and speed factors, two issues the Wintel PC makers have so often touted are now working for Apple as well. That leaves the platform - Windows XP versus OS-X! Insecure versus Secure! Work versus Fun! Bill versus Steve!

So how do I see this playing out?


First, this deal is going to be all about the laptops, especially those which can handle OS-X nicely, are light weight and consume less power. Because if that was not so, then Apple could as easily have signed a deal with AMD, which makes better x86 chips for the desktop. IBM has failed to deliver the low power consuming yet muscular versions of its G5 chips fine tuned for Powerbooks. Secondly, I think Apple will exploit Intel’s chips for often rumored Tablet PC, that could have features in common with Nokia 770 tablet. I would not be surprised that Monday morning, the announcement circles around XScale, or low powered Centrino chips.

The implications of this announcement for rest of the industry are not trivial. Intel, with this deal, and its previous efforts with Linux, is willing to part ways with its partner in crime, Microsoft. Expect, Microsoft to get cozier with AMD. It also would ensure that AMD chips might end up in Dell machines, since all bets are off. These are trying times for Microsoft, but I would not even wager even a dime against Chairman Gates.

There is more to this move, and it has got nothing to do with the PC platform. Its all about the consumer electronics devices. Jobs knows that he has to get the Apple a bigger footprint in the computer business, if he can successfully execute on his CE strategy. It needs to ensure that it can still use iPod as the carrot and the stick, not just for consumers but also for the media business. He needs to ensure his DRM is a better option than Windows. In his own autocratic way he wants the world to march to his tune. And if consumers respond well, he might get his wish.

Wall Street Journal has just confirmed that on Monday, Apple is going to announce that it is slowly going to transition to the x86 chips. C/Net had reported on Friday that Apple would make an announcement on Monday at WWDC. WSJ had reported about the likelihood in its Heard On The Street column on May 23rd. (Thanks Bill!)

PS: Just to clarify, this means Apple will make computers that will use Intel x86 chips, not that you can run OS-X on a Stink Pad.

"

(Via Om Malik on Broadband.)

Interesting things come up when you google for "2850 hardware RNG".

Another excellent centrist pithy political blog.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and the Bush administration abhors a truce. Not coincidentally, many people think that vacuums and the Bush administration both suck.

Krispy Kreme's free doughnut day: "Today only, Krispy Kreme celebrates Doughnut Day by giving away a free doughnut of your choice at all participating retail stores, as we mentioned...(more)"

(Via dealnews - 20 most recent deals..)

Beautiful Photos of Calcutta's other big train station, Howrah (which was always across the bridge for me).

[IP] Diebold Optical Scan Voting System Hacked (3 Ways)

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Wednesday, Jun 1, 2005 9:20 am
Subject: [IP] Diebold Optical Scan Voting System Hacked (3 Ways)

Begin forwarded message:

From: EEkid@aol.com
Date: May 31, 2005 9:55:00 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Diebold Optical Scan Voting System Hacked (3 Ways)
Diebold Optical Scan Voting System Hacked (3 Ways)
Tuesday, 31 May 2005, 1:10 pm
Article: www.blackboxvoting.org
Diebold Optical Scan Voting System Hacked (3 Ways) - BBV Exclusive

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ - Source URL

Tallahassee, FL: "Are we having fun yet?"

This is the message that appeared in the window of a county optical scan machine, startling Leon County Information Systems Officer
Thomas James. Visibly shaken, he immediately turned the machine off.

Diebold's opti-scan (paper ballot) voting system uses a curious memory card design, offering penetration by a lone programmer such that standard canvassing procedures cannot detect election manipulation.

The Diebold optical scan system was used in about 800 jurisdictions in 2004. Among them were several hotbeds of controversy: Volusia
County (FL); King County (WA); and the New Hampshire primary election, where machine results differed markedly from hand-counted localities.

New regs: Counting paper ballots forbidden

Most states prohibit elections officials from checking on optical scan tallies by examining the paper ballots. In Washington, Secretary of State Sam Reed declared such spontaneous checkups to be "unauthorized recounts" and prohibited them altogether. New Florida regulations will forbid counting paper ballots, even in recounts, except in highly unusual circumstances. Without paper ballot hand- counts, the hacks demonstrated below show that optical-scan elections can be destroyed in seconds.

A little man living in every ballot box

The Diebold optical scan system uses a dangerous programming methodology, with an executable program living inside the electronic ballot box. This method is the equivalent of having a little man living in the ballot box, holding an eraser and a pencil. With an executable program in the memory card, no Diebold opti-scan ballot box can be considered "empty" at the start of the election.

The Black Box Voting team proved that the Diebold optical scan program, housed on a chip inside the voting machine, places a call to a program living in the removable memory card during the election.
The demonstration also showed that the executable program on the memory card (ballot box) can easily be changed, and that checks and balances, required by FEC standards to catch unauthorized changes, were not implemented by Diebold -- yet the system was certified anyway.

The Diebold system in Leon County, Florida succumbed to multiple attacks.

Ion Sancho: Truth and Excellence in Elections

Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho and Information Systems
Officer Thomas James had already implemented security procedures in
Leon County far exceeding the norm in elections management. This testing, done by a team of researchers including Black Box Voting, independent filmmakers, security expert Dr. Herbert Thompson, and special consultant Harri Hursti, was authorized by Mr. Sancho, in an unusual act of openness and courage, to identify any remaining holes in Leon County's election security.

The results of the memory card hack demonstration will assist elections supervisors throughout the U.S., by emphasizing the critical importance of accounting for each and every memory card and protecting access.

Findings:

Computer expert Harri Hursti gained control over Leon County memory cards, which handle the vote-reporting from the precincts. Dr.
Herbert Thompson, a security expert, took control of the Leon County central tabulator by implanting a trojan horse-like script.

Two programmers can become a lone programmer, says Hursti, who has figured out a way to control the entire central tabulator by way of a single memory card swap, and also how to make tampered polling place tapes match tampered central tabulator results. This more complex approach is untested, but based on testing performed May 26, Hursti says he has absolutely no reason to believe it wouldn't work.

Three memory card tests demonstrated successful manipulation of election results, and showed that 1990 and 2002 FEC-required safeguards are being violated in the Diebold version 1.94 opti-scan system.

Three memory card hacks

1. An altered memory card (electronic ballot box) was substituted for a real one. The optical scan machine performed seamlessly, issuing a report that looked like the real thing. No checksum captured the change in the executable program Diebold designed into the memory card.

2. A second altered memory card was demonstrated, using a program that was shorter than the original. It still worked, showing that there is also no check for the number of bytes in the program.

3. A third altered memory card was demonstrated with the votes themselves changed, showing that the data block (votes) can be altered without triggering any error message.

How to "Roll over the odometer" in Diebold optical scan machines

Integer overflow checks do not seem to exist in this system, making it possible to stuff the ballot box without triggering any error message. This would be like pre-loading minus 100 votes for Tom and plus 100 votes for Rick (-100+100=ZERO) -- changing the candidate totals without changing the overall number of votes.

A more precise comparison would be this: The odometer on a car rolls over to zero after 999,999. In the Diebold system tested, the rollover to zero happens at 65,536 votes. By pre-loading 65,511 votes for a candidate, after 25 real votes appear (65,511 plus 25 = 65,536) the report "rolls over" so that the candidate's total is ZERO.

This manipulation can be balanced out by preloading votes for candidate "A" at 65,511 and candidate "B" at 25 votes -- producing an articifial 50-vote spread between the candidates, which will not be obvious after the first 25 votes for candidate "A" roll over to zero.
The "negative 25" votes from the odometer rollover counterbalance the "plus 25" votes for the other candidates, making the total number of votes cast at the end of the day exactly equal to the number of voters.

While testing the hack on the Leon County optical scan machine,
Hursti was stunned to find that pre-stuffing the ballot box to "roll over the odometer" produced no error message whatsoever.*

*We did not have the opportunity to scan ballots after stuffing the ballot box. Therefore, the rollover to zero was not tested in Leon
County. This integer overflow capability is discernable in the program itself. We did have the opportunity to test a pre-stuffed ballot box, which showed that pre-loaded ballot boxes do not trigger any error message.

Simple tweaks to pass L&A test and survive zero tape

Though the additional tweaks were not demonstrated at the Leon County elections office, Hursti believes that the integer overflow hack can be covered up on the "zero tape" produced at the beginning of the election. The programming to cover up manipulations during the "logic
& accuracy test" is even simpler, since the program allows you to specify on which reports (and, if you like, date and time of day) the manipulation will affect.

The testing demonstrated, using the actual voting system used in a real elections office, that Diebold programmers developed a system that sacrifices security in favor of dangerously flexible programming, violating FEC standards and calling the actions of ITA testing labs and certifiers into question.

In the case of Leon County, inside access was used to achieve the hacks, but there are numerous ways to introduce the hacks without inside access. Outside access methods will be described in the technical report to be released in mid-June.

Security concerns

Putting an executable program into removable memory card "ballot boxes" -- and then programming the opti-scan chip to call and invoke whatever program is in the live ballot box during the middle of an election -- is a mind-boggling design from a security standpoint.
Combining this idiotic design with a program that doesn't even check to see whether someone has tampered with it constitutes negligence and should result in a product recall.

Counties that purchased the Diebold 1.94 optical scan machines should not pay for any upgraded program; instead, Diebold should be required to recall the faulty program and correct the problem at its own expense.

None of the attacks left any telltale marks, rendering all audits and logs useless, except for hand-counting all the paper ballots.

Is it real? Or is it Memorex?

For example, Election Supervisor Ion Sancho was unable to tell, at first, whether the poll tape printed with manipulated results was the real thing. Only the message at the end of the tape, which read "Is this real? Or is it Memorex?" identified the tape as a tampered version of results.

In another test, Congresswoman Corrine Brown (FL-Dem) was shocked to see the impact of a trojan implanted by Dr. Herbert Thompson. She asked if the program could be manipulated in such a way as to flip every fifth vote.

"No problem," Dr. Thompson replied.

"It IS a problem. It's a PROBLEM!" exclaimed Brown, whose district includes the troubled Volusia County, along with Duval County -- both currently using the Diebold opti-scan system.

This system is also used in Congressman John Conyers' home district, in contentious King County, Washington, and in Lucas County, Ohio
(where six election officials resigned or were suspended after many irregularities were found.)

Diebold optical scans were used in San Diego for its ill-fated mayoral election in Nov. 2004.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Optical scan systems have paper ballots, but election officials are crippled in their ability to hand count these ballots due to restrictive state regulations and budget limitations.

The canvassing (audit) procedure used to certify results from optical scan systems involves comparing the "poll tapes" (cash register-like results receipts) with the printout from the central tabulator. These tests demonstrate that both results can be manipulated easily and quickly.

Minimum requirements to perform this hack:

1. A single specimen memory card from any county using the Diebold
1.94 optical scan series. (These cards were seen scattered on tables in King County, piled in baskets accessible to the public in Georgia, and jumbled on desktops in Volusia county.)

2. A copy of the compiler for the AccuBasic program. (These compilers have been fairly widely distributed by Diebold and its predecessor company, and there are workarounds if no compiler is available.)

3. Modest working language of any one of the higher level computer languages (Pascal, C, Cobol, Basic, Fortran...) along with introductory-level knowledge of assembler or machine language.
(Machine language knowledge needed is less than an advanced refrigerator or TV repairmen needs. The optical scan system is much simpler than modern appliances).

The existence of the executable program in the memory card was discernable from a review of the Diebold memos. The test hacks took just a few hours for Black Box Voting consultants to develop.

Nearly 800 jurisdictions conducted a presidential election on this system. This system is so profoundly hackable that an advanced-level
TV repairman can manipulate votes on it.

Black Box Voting asked Dr. Thompson and Hursti to examine the central tabulator and the optical scan system after becoming concerned that not enough attention had been paid to optical scans, tabulators and remote access.

Thompson and Hursti each found the vulnerabilities for their respective hacks in less than 24 hours.

"Open for Business"

When it comes to this optical-scan system, as Hursti says, "It's not that they left the door open. There is no door. This system is 'open for business.'"

The question now is: How brisk has business been? Based on this new evidence, it is time to sequester and examine the memory cards used with Diebold optical scans in Nov. 2004.

The popularity of tamper-friendly machines that are "open for business" in heavily Democratic areas may explain the lethargy with which Democratic leaders have been approaching voting machine security concerns.

The enthusiasm with which Republicans have endorsed machines with no paper ballots at all indicates that neither party really wants to have intact auditing of elections.

The ease with which a system -- which clearly violates dozens of FEC standards going back to 1990 -- was certified calls into question the honesty, competence, and personal financial transactions of both testing labs and NASED certifiers.

Revamp and update hand-counted paper ballot technology?

Perhaps it is time to revisit the idea of hand-counted paper ballots, printed by machines for legibility, with color-coded choices for quick, easy, accurate sorting and counting. We should also take another look at bringing counting teams in when the polls close, to relieve tired poll workers.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00381.htm

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Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/

I am very very very close to wiping OS X from my machine and installing OpenBSD or linux.

grrrr.

What's the point of a very complicated beautiful operating system for me if it keeps crashing, can't sync with my palm properly, and can't switch between wireless modem and Wifi.

How long is it going to be before a Bagle variant appears that doesn't download from a preset list of URLs, but instead has an embedded trackerless Bittorrent client.

You Windows users are so screwed.

No, You windows users are so going to screw us over...

Interview with the Hitchens Brothers:

Female audience member Excuse me. I'm not usually awkward at all but I'm sitting here and we're asked not to smoke. And I don't like being in a room where smoking is going on.


CH (smoking heavily): Well, you don't have to stay, do you darling. I'm working here and I'm your guest. OK . This is what I like.


IK Would you just stub that one out?


CH No. I cleared it with the festival a long time ago. They let me do it. If anyone doesn't like it they can kiss my ass.


(Woman walks out)