It’s not enough getting morality from religion, philosophy, peer pressure and law. Now business also wants to take the moral high ground.
Random House contractually requires young adult writers to behave. Cory Doctorow points out that they didn’t ask him to sign such a contract for Little Brother. This is probably because they realize just how [...]
Twitter is ending SMS support in the UK, because it’s costing them too much.
This got me thinking. Most cellphones these days have internet connectivity. The data cost of an SMS is negligible. (You want to do the math? Think R 2.00 / 1,048,576 bytes * 200 chars). Yes, I know about IM, but it’s still [...]
A restraining order was issued against three MIT students who were to make a presentation at Defcon. They were about to reveal security vulnerabilities that they discovered in the Massachusetts train fare system.
The EFF is appealing the decision on the grounds that the restraining order is a violation of the student’s free speech rights.
Ironically, the [...]
I believe in open content, but I’d settle for open access until the collective consciousness catches up. This is why I love searching the net for free textbooks and ebooks.
I’ve found a couple of classics like the Cluetrain Manifesto, and New Rules for the New Economy, and by now everybody knows about Quirk’s eMarketing Textbook. [...]
Danny O’Brien made the point that copying isn’t such a big deal any more, but that plagiarism is almost universally condemned.
One reason for this could be the environment that originated the open content ethos. In an academic environment, using someone else’s work to support your own conclusions is encouraged, but using it without [...]
I remember a time when it was widely believed that Internet shopping would never happen, because people were too afraid that their credit card details will be stolen. People were paranoid about their personal data.
Yet today we put our personal details on Facebook, our creative work on Blogger and send our most intimate messages through [...]
The Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project is a research project that investigates alternative network infrastructure designs.
This is not Internet2. This is a more radical departure from established network designs, a bold experiment in seeing what is possible.
Some people might wonder what the point is. Sure, we’re about to run out of IP addresses, [...]
The mechanism was salvaged off the coast of the island of Antikythera in 1900. Ever since then, people have been wondering what the heck it was for. I mean, here’s a device made in 150 BC, of a complexity that wouldn’t be seen again for a thousand years.
Early speculation on the device’s nature thought it [...]
