...more recent posts
Long super geeky backgrounder on implementing VisiCalc, the program that fueled the personal computer revolution.
The strange story of a guy, an accordian, a weblog, and a girl who wasn't who she said she was. Not sure what the moral of this story is. Sort of unsettling on many fronts. And he doesn't even consider the weirdest possibility: maybe she really did prove P = NP, and now the world will never know.
This came up in his blog, but it seemed to me at the time like things had been worked out, and it wasn't that big of a deal. Now wired has an article about the agonist plagiarizing many of his battle updates from a pay newsletter put out by Stratfor. Wired says:
Some of the information was attributed to news outlets and other sources, but much of it was unsourced, particularly the almost real-time combat information presumably gleaned from a string of high-level sources worldwide....I never had the sense that he had a "string of high-level sources worldwide" but I guess that doesn't absolve him. Still, I think he provided a valuable (if slightly illegal) service. He distilled the news at a time when this was very difficult to do. Obviously he couldn't source the Stratfor stuff, because it was a paid service.
The only problem: Much of his material was plagiarized -- lifted word-for-word from a paid news service put out by Austin, Texas, commercial intelligence company Stratfor.
I guess you could object that he shouldn't have used the Stratfor stuff at all. Fair enough. I'm just saying that a lot of people wanted to know what was going on, and he provided that information. I put his wrong doing in the same camp as running a gnutella client. In other words: wrong, but it's not going to stop me from using such a fine service.
I'm going to attempt to transition away from my 100% depressing all war coverage. Not sure how it will go.
In any case, here's the April 3rd status report from the Chandler team. Because you know, what a war mongering empire really needs is a good open source PIM.
OK, it's not going so well yet. Give me some time.
Environy is making buttons. I like this one especially:
N.Y. Times article (super annoying registration required - you can use fmhreader / fmhreader for name / password) on military training using computer simulation.
One notion involves a scenario quite literally torn from the pages of a science fiction novel, in which a virtual training system becomes the actual means of waging war. "Ender's Game," a cult classic by Orson Scott Card, tells the story of a group of young soldiers battling aliens in a video game. In the end, they emerge to find that their victory has saved humankind, and that it was not a game.
" 'Ender's Game' has had a lot of influence on our thinking," said Michael Macedonia, director of the Army's simulation technology center in Orlando, Fla., which plans to build a virtual Afghanistan that could host hundreds of thousands of networked computers. "The intent is to build a simulation that allows people to play in that world for months or years, participate in different types of roles and see consequences of their decisions."
Bruce Sterling on Poindexter, the Contras, and al Qaeda.
A useful bit of USENET jargon for these times of intense on line debate (invoked by the agonist): Godwin's Law:
"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.
Debka (salt to taste) says:
Exclusive Middle East sources have tracked down the top Iraqi leadership's bolt-hole. It is a large 1,600-room luxury resort with 600 meters of private sandy beach in the Mediterranean coastal town of Latakiya called Cote d'Azur De Cham Resort, prepaid and chartered in toto by Baghdad.That would sure fit the rest of the puzzle pretty well (I mean the part where the U.S. invades Syria next.) What could possibly be in it for Syria?
The group may include Saddam Hussein or his sons, but this is not confirmed.
The hotel is located close to the Assad family villa.
Top Iraqi officials are reported hiding there since March 23, four days after the US-led coalition invaded Iraq. They are guarded by a Syrian commando unit armed with anti-air missiles while Syrian naval missile boats secure the port.
Keep your eye on the ball.
Echoing a wider move away from the US dollar, the Indonesian government and the central bank, Bank Indonesia, may begin to use the euro in export-import transactions and foreign-exchange reserves.Who's next? Iran?
The statement was made by Finance Minister Boediono, Bank Indonesia governor Syahril Sabirin and senior deputy governor Anwar Nasution here on the weekend in connection with state oil company Pertamina's plan to use the euro in its trade transactions.