Virus scan:
An email virus called Nyxem-E is ticking down, set to go off in three days.
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January 31, 2006
American bread:
Reilly has now picked St. Fleur as his running mate. Suburb meets city, a good combination. And how about the mayor's take?
"This will add some pizzazz to the ticket," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has endorsed Reilly's candidacy. "Tom Reilly's biggest problem is that he is about as exciting as American bread. He is not charismatic. She is charismatic, and she is smart and bold."
Now that's what I call an endorsement. Or half an endorsement anyway.
Implied license:
I'm not sure what to make of the embedded blogger who claims a photo he took ended up being used by the Army for PR. Granted he uploaded the photo to a public site, but I don't think that alters ownership of the image. The Army, it would seem to me, can't give away something that they don't own.
January 30, 2006
Up with people:
The Berklee School of Music wants to make rap music more friendly and wholesome and less angry and misogynistic.
On the same note, chefs at the Culinary Institute are reported to be working on ice cream that is warmer and tastes more like chicken.
Broken slate:
Now Gabrieli and his money are out of the campaign. In a strange last minute move, preparations to announce a gubernatorial ticket were halted for no apparent reason.
There is a reason of course. It's just not apparent, leaving us to speculate.
Order:
Chaos at the Saddam Hussein trial? Who woulda' thought.
Maybe they should just bring in the dancing judge Itos and make the farce official. Saddam's lawyers could adopt the argument: If you can't decide, there was no genocide.
January 29, 2006
The fifth revolution:
There's something interesting going on in neuroscience that you may be interested in. It revolves around mirror cells and has far reaching implications for everything from evolution to fiction.
Editing the record:
Adam has the links and the lowdown on Marty Meehan's changing Wikipedia entry.
Knights errant:
Joan Vennochi is angry and frustrated with Democrats who are more interested in grandstanding than getting elected.
Anger becomes her; it's one of her best columns ever.
Wine with dinner:
I've found it a real pain to drive to Memorial Drive for two-buck-Chuck when the Trader Joe's closer to home would be more convenient. If the proposed ballot amendment allowing chain grocery stores to sell wine in more than three locations goes through, that extra drive will be history.
The downside is that local package stores will lose business against the big chains who can price cheap wines even cheaper. But some of the arguments against the proposal made by independents seem based more in desperation than fact.
Opponents of the initiative say issuing liquor licenses to allow supermarkets to sell wine might increase drunken-driving and underage drinking and deal a severe economic blow to neighborhood liquor stores.
I'll buy the latter, but the a wave of drunk driving caused by cheap chardonnay? Who's going to buy that whine?
Progress:
Some hyperlinks today in the Globe ombudsman's column. Internal links, but at least it's a start.
(Also note the Harry Forbes letter. I'm guessing that it's the same Harry that runs the Squaring the Globe blog.)
January 28, 2006
Incentive:
According to the NYTimes, some Palestinians don't care that the West has threatened to cut off financial aid if Hamas doesn't reject terrorism and its calls for the destruction of Israel. That money won't be missed, they say, since most of it went into the pockets of corrupt Fatah leaders.
"It is not as if the people received any of it," said [one Palestinian].
Yes, but some money is better than no money. We'll see.
January 27, 2006
On the lawn:
Which bands get to play historic Fenway Park? I think we all agree that there should be some standards. The artist should have something like greatness.
Springsteen? Sure. He's The Boss and his shows are legendary. Jimmy Buffett has also attained legendary status (albeit for having one hit single thirty-plus years ago.) The Stones? Why not -again, legends and well, they won't be around forever.
But Madonna? I just don't think so.
Mojave desert:
If you're drawn to the warm and inviting expanse of City Hall Plaza, you're gonna love the new treeless Greenway.
Chalk up another one for the the Big Dig design team.
January 26, 2006
Great firewall:
I've found that in China, sometimes the alternate reality is the operant reality, and often we in the West will miss the mark in using our frame of reference to make judgments on their society.
But. Ultimately I agree with the criticism of Google's acquiescence to filtering politically subversive search results. Any ground they gained in holding back the US Government, they lost in the China decision. Carpundit puts it well: 'Don't be evil' but it's OK to cooperate with evil?
Returning?
The T has offered to bring the Partisans back to Boston, suggesting Courthouse Station on the Silver Line. I think that's too far out of most people's path.
How about Park Street, up on the Common. It would reflect the mood of commuters heading to work each morning.
New regime:
I wouldn't go as far as to say that This Changes Everything, but the surprising strength of Hamas' election victory will present an enormous new challenge for advancing the peace process. I think it says as much about corruption in the Fatah party as it does about the appeal of the Hamas anti-Israel position, but that might be wishful thinking.
With Israel in political transition, Iran making nuclear threats and us distracted in Iraq, there's now certainly a new potential for things to get much worse in the Middle East before they even get slightly better.
Big dig:
So if you went down to the Boston Common, right out on the parade grounds, and started digging, and digging, and digging, where would you end up? Thanks to the Internet and people with way too much time on their hands, there's now a way to find out.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, you would not end up in China, but somewhere a few hundred miles out into the ocean off the southwest coast of Australia.
Where's H5N1?
Most everyone has seen one of those dollar bills that are stamped in red, "Visit WheresGeorge.com." And a lot of people, myself included, have checked out the site to find that it's a game that tracks the movement of pieces of money around the world.
Now, scientists are using the data provided by the game to model the potential spread of infectious diseases. Fascinating stuff.
Arbitrary:
Read this AP article appearing on the Globe site and try to figure out what the logic for who gets hyperlinks and who doesn't was. Once again, I'm baffled.
UPDATE: Sorry, I missed this. Apparently it's an automated process, a process which recent articles indicate leaves much to be desired. Is copy-editing automated? I wouldn't think so. How about addressing the potential for hyper-linking to relevant sites at that point in the process?
If newspapers are serious about using the internet to make money they have to learn the rules of the web. Rule 1: It's all about the links. Content is important but on the web, links are critical -not just an afterthought. The first big company to make lots of money on the web was Yahoo!. No content, just links. And they were serious about them, they hand sorted their links!
Now, repeat after me: It's -all -about -the -links!
January 25, 2006
Animated conversation:
A serious discussion, Barcelona, 2003
January 22, 2006
Extra effort:
It's annoying to read an article that refers to the content of websites but doesn't give enough detail for the reader to easily find those sites. A URL, site title or even better, links would be nice. I've complained in the past about the Globe's inconsistent policy in this regard.
And again today in a Globe Magazine article on Lucy Wightman, they refer to a blog discussion about, and a blog written by Wightman, without leaving any bread crumbs for readers who might want to check out those sources for themselves.
Ironically, the Globe website page displaying the Lucy Wightman story also featured a Google adsense ad: "Become a Psychologist, Faster Than You Thought Possible!" linking to mail order diploma universities. You can't make this stuff up.
(My personal take on the indictment, without the benefit of detailed knowledge? Overkill.)
January 21, 2006
Curvaceous:
Brain Googling:
There's no shortage of outrage over the Google subpoenas. The request for information actually is no big deal. It's the larger implications that are important.
The case is a wake-up call and an opportunity to make people think about the evolving nature of privacy in a world that now almost completely revolves around communication and shared technology.
Search engines are like the digital sand, where we leave foot prints. Corporate email systems (as Microsoft and Bill Gates know all too well from their DoJ adventures), instant messaging systems, and even shopping carts - we are leaving a tiny bit of privacy wherever we go. Of course you could turn to paper and pen, disconnect yourself from the grid and move to a mountain cabin, but the options are all but none. In fact, we find ways to erode this privacy every little time.
Resistance is futile. You might as well just cut out the middleman.
UPDATE: We know that the controversy has hurt Google stock. Will it also weaken the company in its battle with publishers over indexing book content? I'm guessing the publishers are not unhappy about all this.
Dot:
Dorchester: A reputation for nightlife and fine dining. Who woulda' thought?
There's always been some of both in the neighborhood but the more the better. (I'm curious as to what goes into one of those Dotinis.)
Bad odds:
Slots at the racetracks? Anywhere but the racetracks.
There's a history of sleaziness and corruption associated with the tracks in the state. Formalizing a relationship between track owners and the Lottery would, I think, be a recipe for disaster.
January 20, 2006
Dollar for dollar:
Photoshop, the premier graphics program, can do just about anything. Anything, that is, except produce counterfeit currency.
The program is commonly used to do all sorts of questionable things (like fabricate identification, for instance.) But, to its credit, Adobe has loaded algorithms into its code to detect and prevent casual currency counterfeiting.
Hardball:
The Murphy vs Herald case appeal is being fought on two fronts, the public opinion front and the legal front.
In the former, the Herald had been gaining some ground with its coverage of the judge's demands for settling the case.
But on the legal front, yesterday's decision is a setback. Especially where it leaves open the possibility of having the Herald's assets frozen. If you value the idea of a two paper town, that's seriously bad news for us all.
House of corrections:
An interesting verdict in the Cabral case. Jurors ruled for Porter but at least one personally gave Cabral a pass, blaming members of her staff for setting her up, whatever that means.
Click it or warning:
Ignorance of the law would, in the case of the proposed seat belt law, be an excuse; anyone pulled over for not wearing a seat-belt in the first 120 days after the law goes into effect would be issued a warning rather than a citation.
Whether you like the law or not, this easing in seems fair to me.
January 19, 2006
Simple:
RSS and the new Windows Vista? Greg Lamb, writing in the CSM says it's a well made match.
Pan right:
While cities are grappling with the privacy implications of video surveillance systems, small towns are diving right in, with a little help from homeland security funding.
January 18, 2006
Kids these days:
We used to have a guy like this in our neighborhood when I was growing up. When we played in the street, he used to run out and steal the ball when it bounced up on to his lawn. And of course, the grouchier he got, the more we messed with him.
Distraction:
Here's a great collection of panoramic photos from sites around Europe.
Forty seven per cent:
Meth is now, by far, the biggest problem drug in many parts of the country, particularly the Midwest. Not yet around here, although we've been keeping our fingers crossed for some time.
Transparency:
The Boston Police blog - BPDNews - posted an entry claiming that a Globe op-ed, written by Dianne Wilkerson was factually incorrect. Of course BPDNews linked to the op-ed so people could see for themselves what they were writing about.
Then the Globe did a followup story about the content of the BPDNews posting but curiously forgot to mention how its readers could find the site.
It would have been easy to provide the URL for the source material that formed the basis for the story so people could look and judge for themselves. A working link would have been even better. Hell, they did it for these guys.
For full disclosure, see the about link- top right.
January 17, 2006
Peace and happiness:
The Hublog / JBOD wars are over for now. Adam lays it all out, noting signs of possible insurgent activity.
The Mohorovicic Discontinuity:
We have spacecraft flying almost 9 billion miles out, but our newest frontier is really only 5 miles away.
Binge space:
High school kids should be careful about what they post in their My Space pages. College admissions officers are reading.
Herd mentality II:
Southern Spain, 2003
Herd mentality:
As a Mac user I could be accused of rubbing it in when it comes to Windows security problems. So are the chickens coming home to roost? Could it be that Mac users haven't built up the necessary 'immunity' to ward off problems when they come?
Maybe, but not likely. I don't thinks a 'whatever doesn't kill us, makes us stronger' approach applies to computer users. Despite being barraged for years by mal-ware, the average Windows user still doesn't have the faintest idea how security works.
January 16, 2006
Dodging bullets:
If you're a glass-half-full type of person, I guess you could interpret this as a sign that New Orleans is returning to a sense of normalcy.
Crusaders:
I never thought I'd see Ray and Mickey together again on the front page. But they're back, apparently to fight crime. (Someone must have accidentally switched on the Bat-signal.)
I am glad though, to see that the Herald has a sense of local history.
Water everywhere:
Brant Rock flood, Winter of 2003
Hop, skip and a jump:
Commuting between the DC area and Boston, at first blush sounds crazy but it is do-able. Not a daily commute of course, but weekly, it would certainly work.
On the threes:
I don't care about congestion at the loop ramp, the jug handle or Treble Cove Road. I don't even know where they are! I, like other drivers, only want to know about the traffic in my path.
Current radio traffic reports are entertaining (how do they talk so fast?) but not very helpful. It all seems scripted.
Web services, like Traffic.com, and Smart Traveller offer better resolution but how do you access it while driving? From the Globe, here are some other options and predictions of how to monitor traffic in the future. (The Globe offers their own traffic service through Smart Traveller.)
January 15, 2006
The war plan:
Andrew Sullivan, in the London Times, takes us, by way of Fred Barnes' book on Bush, through Paul Bremer's book on why Iraq turned out the way it did.
Standing corrected:
Newspapers sometimes draw broad conclusions from relatively insignificant statistics. Just for fun, using their own numbers, I'm going to do the same thing for the Globe. Here's my headline:
Boston Globe local reporting more error prone than in the past.
237 errors in the City / Region section last year vs 234 the year before. Actually, 237 does seems like a lot of errors. In context though, it might not be. And really, the increase is negligible.
Ombudsman Chacón tells us that one reporter was responsible for 10 errors, one columnist had 5. Who were they?
...In my column, I mention that one reporter logged 10 errors. I didn't name the reporter because he no longer works at the Globe and I didn't have a chance to get a formal comment from him. I also didn't name the columnist with the most errors because it seemed unfair to single him out without naming the reporter...
Commendable, but not very enlightening for the reader.
One more complaint. The op-ed referred to the ombudsman's blog but didn't provide a link (or even a URL) and it wasn't all that easy to find. Once I did, I found that the entry referenced the op-ed but also didn't provide a link.
UPDATE: Just one more nitpicking observation. In his blog post Chacón writes:
...As I noted in the column, there is no clear explanation why the total number of errors has declined since 2004. It may be that Globe journalists are being more careful and accurate...
If so, they're only being 0.01% more careful and accurate. That's because there was a total relative decrease in errors, 2004 to 2005, of zero point zero one percent -not exactly something to brag about.
(As I do the math, In 2004 there were 1031 errors in 59,144 stories. In 2005 1018 errors in 57,893 stories. Both represent an error rate of about 1.7%, or more precisely, 1.75% vs 1.74%. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.))
North to south:
This is an interesting twist to the story of contraband crossing the border. It seems the US is corrupting Mexico in the same way that New Hampshire has been accessed of corrupting Massachusetts.
Disorder:
No one at Roxbury court is taking the blame for letting an accused criminal fall through the cracks.
January 14, 2006
Dead end street:
From the battlefield:
Jay stands and fires back at Johnny Bag O'Donuts (of whom I am an admitted regular reader.) He disapproves of his shooting over the berm without showing himself.
All is fair, etc... but if, as I suspect, JBOD is a local journalist, I agree that he should (beyond admitting being "ultimately hypocritical") divulge his conflicts, especially if it is competitors that he is aiming his flame-thrower at.
News gathering:
What great luck for the owners of a new web startup to have a major newspaper do a front page story on them --with a color logo display, testimonial quote and direct links in the online version of the story.
Especially so when the startup doesn't really offer anything new, innovative or exciting.
So is the Globe now selling ad space above the fold on its front page? I might want to get in on that.
South downtown:
Get ready for the long-time-coming surge in development in the Fan Pier area. This time it's really for real.
A matter of trust:
Armchair quarterbacking the Cabral trial, it seems, at least from the news reports, that it all comes down to this:
'Because I didn't know the new people, I didn't know who I could trust and who I couldn't," Porter said.
That's what jail nurse Sheila Porter gave as a reason that she didn't turn in her report on a prisoner abuse allegation to her new Cabral-led supervisors at the House of Correction.
If your employees don't trust you then they aren't going to be effective employees and you should have the right to terminate their employment. The fact that the employee may or may not be an FBI informants is irrelevant. (And anyway, if they aren't effective employees how can they be effective informants?)
That's how it appears to a casual observer. Did Cabral have mixed motives? That's something that's hanging in the air, although what her ultimate motive would be is unclear.
Is there an additional back story? Harvey Silvergate (for what that's worth) seems to think so and I guess it's not surprising that Cabral completely buys into it.
January 13, 2006
Sipping the Kool-Aid:
Lots happening in the Apple world this week with the big keynote speech and Macworld and all. I've been trying not to post too much about it (I know it can be tedious for all you Windows people) but here's a wrap up of the best products from the week (here's another) and as usual, TUAW has lots of posts on what's going on.
Oh, and for you Windows folks, you'll be happy to hear that on the new Macs, you can choose to start either in Windows or the Mac OS. That's right. Windows will run on the Mac. If the concept, 'suffer by comparison' has any meaning, that's very bad news for Microsoft.