2012 Mar 30, 2:40
Intro to the world of the 0day exploit market.
security technical 0day internet 2011 Apr 27, 2:23"The gradual disappearance of open wireless networks is a tragedy of the commons, with a confusing twist of privacy and security debate. This essay explains why the progressive locking of wireless
networks is harmful — for convenience, for privacy and for efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum."
law eff wireless internet technical privacy security 2010 Dec 14, 3:06"Join Kris for a pointed presentation on the state of CommonJS: what's done, what's being debated, and what needs to be done."
javascript video commonjs technical kris-kowal 2009 Jun 5, 3:27Looks cool and includes things like Keyboard Cat and Looong Cat.
game nintendo video scribblenauts internet meme 2009 Apr 7, 11:58
This past week I finished Anathem and despite the intimidating physical size of the book (difficult to take and read on the bus) I became very engrossed and was able to finish it in several orders of
magnitude less time than
what I spent on the Baroque
Cycle. Whereas reading the Baroque Cycle you can imagine Neal Stephenson sifting through giant economic tomes (or at least that's where my mind went whenever the characters began to explain
macro-economics to one another), in Anathem you can see Neal Stephenson staying up late
pouring over philosophy of mathematics. When not
exploring philosophy, Anathem has an appropriate amount of humor, love interests, nuclear bombs, etc. as you might hope from reading Snow Crash or Diamond Age. I thoroughly enjoyed Anathem.
On the topic of made up words: I get made up words for made up things, but there's already a name for cell-phone in English: its "cell-phone". The narrator notes that the book has been translated
into English so I guess I'll blame the fictional translator. Anyway, I wasn't bothered by the made up words nearly as much as some folk. Its a good thing I'm long
out of college because I can easily imagine confusing the names of actual concepts and people with those from the book, like Hemn space for Hamming distance. Towards the beginning, the description
of slines and the post-post-apocalyptic setting reminded me briefly of Idiocracy.
Recently, I've been reading everything of Charles Stross that I can, including about a month ago, The Jennifer Morgue from the surprisingly awesome amalgamation genre of spy thriller and Lovecraft
horror. Its the second in a series set in a universe in which magic exists as a form of mathematics and follows Bob Howard programmer/hacker, cube dweller, and begrudging spy who works for a
government agency tasked to suppress this knowledge and protect the world from its use. For a taste, try a short story from the series that's freely available on Tor's website, Down on the Farm.
Coincidentally, both Anathem and the Bob Howard series take an interest in the world of Platonic ideals. In the case of Anathem (without spoiling anything) the universe of Platonic ideals, under a
different name of course, is debated by the characters to be either just a concept or an actual separate universe and later becomes the underpinning of major events in the book. In the Bob Howard
series, magic is applied mathematics that through particular proofs or computations awakens/disturbs/provokes unnamed horrors in the universe of Platonic ideals to produce some desired effect in
Bob's universe.
atrocity archives neal stephenson jennifer morgue plato bob howard anathem 2009 Jan 22, 9:43'Behind the press reports, the academic community has been engaged in a hot debate over whether the evidence supports a connection between the violent content of games and any behavioral effects. One
of the researchers who has argued forcefully that it's not is Christopher Ferguson, who has just published a paper that argues that the continued societal focus on games as a causal factor in
violence is an example of what's termed a "moral panic."'
game violence society videogames 2008 Apr 18, 12:58"I found myself in possession of the "Infocom Drive" - a complete backup of Infocom's shared network drive from 1989." He posts emails from that backup w/o consulting those involved who show up for
luke warm debate in the comments.
if interactive-fiction infocom hhgttg history scifi videogame article 2008 Jan 26, 12:32Another hilarious Internet video generated from the writer strike. Yay for the strike!
via:boingboing wga writing writers-strike video youtube tv daily-show colbert-report 2007 Jul 26, 12:05A debate between David Weinberger (of Everything is Miscellaneous) and Andrew Keen (of Cult of the Amatuer) on the Web as the end of intelligent society. Of course since I'm posting this on delicious
its clear who I favor in this debate.
david-weinberger blog article debate taxonomy tagging social community web 2007 Apr 13, 1:56"We'd be better off without Religion" with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and AC Grayling. In London's Westminster Central Hall on March 27, some 2,000 people turned out to hear Hitchens,
Dawkins and philosopher A.C. Grayling debate a trio of rel
audio mp3 politics religion debate philosophy richard-dawkins
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