tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36766272011-04-21T20:09:06.231-07:00Adina Levin's weblog. Mostly for conversation about books I've been reading. Other stuff too.Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comBlogger1651100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-1120332284633113162005-07-02T12:24:00.000-07:002005-07-02T12:24:44.680-07:00

Green Muse turtle Originally uploaded by alevin. One of the water garden turtles at the green muse.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-1094180479024548312004-09-02T20:01:00.000-07:002004-09-02T20:01:19.036-07:00

just for fun

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-1093715812800809542004-08-28T10:56:00.000-07:002004-08-28T10:56:52.833-07:00

this looks nice and simple

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3901464692003-01-05T22:10:00.000-08:002003-01-06T05:34:14.000-08:00

You'll find new blog entries at the BookBlog's new home. The new site's on MovableType, with search, categories, integrated comments, and other goodies. This is exciting -- hopefully it will make it easier for people who are interested in some topics but not others to find what they like on the site. Permalinks will continue to work here, but I've moved the archive to the new site as well.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901459412003-01-05T18:10:00.000-08:002003-01-05T18:10:59.086-08:00

Took a major life step today. I set up a green, 3 cubic yard coated-wire mesh compost bin, behind the wood fence that separates the gravel driveway from the side garden and deck. Many of the remaining leaf bags went into the compost bin. The rest of the leaf bags are out for pickup. It seemed completely absurd to me to put the bags of leaves and clippings at the curb for recycling, and then

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901441712003-01-05T06:25:00.000-08:002003-01-05T06:25:51.126-08:00

I heard these folks tonight at Casa de Luz. From the promo email: Music, chants, and texts from Mediterranean sacred traditions. A musical voyage through history and spirituality. Catherine Braslavsky, chant, drum, dulcimer; Joseph Rowe, texts, oud, drums, tampura, mbira, Tibetan bowls. Hildegard of Bingen, Gregorian chant, Troubadours, Ibn Arabi, Yehuda Halevi, Judeo-Spanish, and original

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901412492003-01-04T06:14:00.000-08:002003-01-04T06:14:48.170-08:00

The reason I get all all excited about weblog clustering is that the "winner-takes-most" aspect of the log scale graph is NOT what is most interesting about weblog networks. If it were, then the net would be like network television -- a few top broadcasters, and an infinite number of passive viewers. It's not. The weblog network is a mesh of communities with overlapping and shifting memberships

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901416242003-01-04T06:07:00.000-08:002003-01-04T09:11:56.000-08:00

On Fellowship and Two Towers by Renee Perlmutter via Dorothea Salo. Two interesting points about divergence from the books:The book is overflowing with honor; the relevant scenes in the movie were exchanged with something else. In the book, Eomer makes his decision despite "the letter of the law", based on his judgement of Aragorn; Faramir does not hesitate for a second, faced with the

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901389652003-01-03T12:27:00.000-08:002003-01-03T12:27:37.930-08:00

On the subject of blogs reporting local trivia, the folks at Ruta Maya say they probably won't have wireless up and running until after SXSW -- they're working furiously to get their performance space ready for bands and crowds.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901389222003-01-03T12:14:00.000-08:002003-01-03T12:25:46.000-08:00

In a comment on the post below, Howard Greenstein refers to nycbloggers, a site that aggregates New York blogs. I love the map that locates NYC bloggers by proximity to subway stops. Relates to a conversation I was having with Peter Merholz about sites for local blogs, which he writes about here. One of Peter's insights is that blogs are a great way to report trivia that gets bypassed by

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901340722003-01-02T10:08:00.000-08:002003-01-04T22:02:01.000-08:00

Ross Mayfield writes about some nifty work by Valdis Krebs to map the network of relationships at Ryze, an online business networking group, and the weblog tribe on Ryze. Here's some more analysis that would be really interesting: a) identify clusters of blogs -- blogs that share a number of blogroll blogs in common (first filter out the most popular blogs). b) use text analysis to identify

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901322552003-01-01T21:48:00.000-08:002003-01-01T21:48:33.883-08:00

From a comment to Mitch Kapor's Chandler weblog. DUCKY'S LAWS OF EMAIL 1. People are more efficient when related messages are grouped together and the groups are in rough priority order. 2. People want to be able to see all their "to-do" messages -- ones that they need to read, respond to, or act upon -- easily. 3. (or maybe 2b). When a message has no more pending actions, people want to

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901119092002-12-30T18:17:00.000-08:002002-12-30T18:19:20.000-08:00

I took Umberto Eco's Baudolino to Seattle. The plot is like Woody Allen's Zelig set in 12/13th century Italy and Constantinople. An Italian peasant boy with a gift for languages and colorful lies becomes the protege of Frederick Babarossa, and is the behind-the-scenes creator of grail legends, the canonization of Charlemagne, counterfeit relics, and the mysterious letter from the mythical

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901051372002-12-30T18:08:00.000-08:002002-12-30T18:19:49.000-08:00

Hard-boiled detective novel set in contemporary depression Japan, by a British expat. Great atmospheric detail of Tokyo streets and lower-middle-class Japanese life. The theme of surface propriety and underlying corruption adapts wonderfully to a Japanese setting. The gender stereotypes of the genre -- clueless bourgeoises, canny whores -- fit better with Japanese society than with contemporary

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-901257972002-12-30T18:02:00.000-08:002002-12-30T21:03:06.000-08:00

The Nanny Diaries (you may have read it; I'm probably the last on the planet who hasn't) is written by two ex-nannies to the Manhattan socialite set. The novel portrays the struggles of a young nanny who cares for a poor little rich boy who is emotionally abandoned and rigidly programmed by narcissistic parents (the nursery school interviews, latin lessons, the "spatula move" where the mother

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900903982002-12-25T11:29:00.000-08:002002-12-25T11:31:05.000-08:00

I'm heading off to Seattle to spend time with the family. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, have a happy and peaceful Christmas. For everyone else in countries that take Christmas as a holiday, have a very merry vacation.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900903962002-12-25T11:27:00.000-08:002002-12-25T11:27:42.956-08:00

Six months after moving into the house, I finally put mezuzahs on most of the doors (I put a mezuzah by the front door when I moved in). Mezuzahs are small cases holding a scroll of parchment with Torah verses. The custom is to place them on the right side of doorways heading into a room. Mezuzot on the doors are supposed to remind you of the presence of God and the commandments. Which sounds

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900896132002-12-24T22:57:00.000-08:002002-12-24T22:57:48.910-08:00

On an experimental MovableType weblog I've been playing with comments syndication. I would love to be able to subscribe to comments when I'm following a conversation, instead of manually pinging the weblog, and would be happy to syndicate comments feeds to others. So far the "comments syndication" examples I've seen from Bill Kearney and Phil Ringnalda have involved syndicating all of the

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900875522002-12-24T07:04:00.000-08:002002-12-24T07:21:04.000-08:00

There's an intriguing article by Kevin Bedell over at the O'Reilly site suggesting that we trademark our personal information. If we get legal protection for our personal data, then we can charge others for using it and restrict others from using it. This sounds like an absolutely wonderful idea to me -- I always wondered why other have legal rights to our personal data and we don't. I'd love

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900875282002-12-24T06:56:00.000-08:002002-12-24T06:56:55.233-08:00

follow up to a thread at the Austin bloggers meeting. Somebody at O'Reilly read Mark Pilgrim's blog and offered him a column at XML.com. Where he wrote this transparently clear introduction to RSS.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900875082002-12-24T06:50:00.000-08:002002-12-24T06:50:10.596-08:00

this post made me teary.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900853322002-12-23T13:15:00.000-08:002002-12-23T13:26:16.000-08:00

According to the New York Times, Viggo Mortenson, who plays Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, wore a "No Blood for Oil" t-shirt on the Charlie Rose talk show to make it clear that the movie wasn't US pro-war propaganda. When I watched the movie, I did think about the danger of portraying the enemy as absolute evil at a time when our government is using the meme - er, bluntly, and portraying enemy

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900837632002-12-23T05:30:00.000-08:002002-12-23T05:30:22.956-08:00

One of my favorite anecdotes in the book was about an errands marketplace. A group of researchers in Eugene, Oregon experimented with a digital version of the community errands list; in which mobile devices negotiate about sharing tasks such as picking up dry cleaning, buying stamps at the post office, picking up a book at the library. This is an academic research project, so it includes

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900837342002-12-23T05:19:00.000-08:002002-12-23T05:19:42.780-08:00

The Smart Mobs in Howard Rheingold's book don't seem so smart. Swarms of people with mobile gizmos can mass to overthrow governments and on a smaller scale, co-ordinate dinner, or turnstile jumping, or soccer riots. A Smart Mob can take down a government, but can it govern? The Seattle protesters were nimble, but their platforms weren't that coherent (contrary opinions with pointers to

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3900807522002-12-21T23:40:00.000-08:002002-12-23T14:51:35.000-08:00

Saw the Two Towers yesterday, and enjoyed it a lot. GoodThe split personality of Gollum/Smeagol (even more effective in the movie) The fact that the movie series gives the female characters more character than the books do. Eowyn ought to be senior at Rohan when her brother cousin dies, her brother is exiled, and her father uncle is incapacitated; the book takes the medieval inheritance rules

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3900805072002-12-21T20:34:00.000-08:002002-12-21T20:36:17.000-08:00

I didn't plan for this weblog to have quite as much political content as it does. My personal feelings about these issues come from the fact that my dad is a holocaust refugee. The holocaust was taught in school and I went through a phase of reading everything I could find on the subject when I was twelve and thirteen. I read about people whose world gradually slid from civilized life to

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900770012002-12-20T11:56:00.000-08:002002-12-20T11:56:46.000-08:00

Ratcliffe says:This is sheer idiocy, because it will actually increase the risks to the national information infrastructure. From its inception, the Net was conceived as a distributed system that could reorganize around failures (in the case of the original designs, the Net was built to route around damage caused by nuclear weapons). Centralizing all network communications to facilitate

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900768142002-12-20T11:08:00.000-08:002002-12-20T11:32:37.000-08:00

So far, 21 cities and towns have passed resolutions to bar city employees fromcollaborating with federal officials who may try to use unconstitutional powers in the PATRIOT act to investigate city residents. Similar efforts are underway in another 26 municipalities. The Bill of Rights Defense Committee is the headquarters for the campaign. Their website includes clear and detailed

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3900759982002-12-20T08:09:00.000-08:002002-12-20T08:11:02.000-08:00

John Markoff and John Schwartz write: The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users. A government official, speaking anonymously to the Times reporters, compared the system to Carnivore, the Internet wiretap system used by the F.B.I.,

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900758192002-12-20T07:34:00.000-08:002002-12-20T07:34:15.353-08:00

Good stuff from David Nunez' write-up on the Austin Blog meet-up. (I described one of the conversations and he caught most of the conversational meander). Given David's penchant for Robotics, I wouldn't be surprised if the Meet-up sign keeps evolving. It has already evolved from a simple table tent, to a printed sign anchored by a water bottle and held high by a piece of tubing punched into the

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900742252002-12-19T19:56:00.000-08:002002-12-19T20:15:12.000-08:00

who showed up for an INS registration program. You can always count on the real terrorists to turn themselves in. free our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons this is a goddamn outrage this is not my America confirms the ACLU's initial fears

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900704162002-12-19T05:49:00.000-08:002002-12-19T19:57:35.000-08:00

At the Austin ">weblogger meetup, Chris McConnell talked about disliking political bloggers who quote mainstream press articles and write pompous commentary. He is put off by their officious tone, repetition of spoonfed platitudes, and their wannabe air, as if they were interviewing for jobs at the New Republic This led to a discussion about diagnostics for phony bloggers, whether using weblogs

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900702672002-12-19T05:45:00.000-08:002002-12-19T06:05:11.000-08:00

peace phone

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900693652002-12-18T16:16:00.000-08:002002-12-18T16:16:44.310-08:00

a gazillion articles from Google news. I screen my home phone most of the time, and can't persuade myself to buy callerID service since it is a protection racket. The phone companies sell your number, and then they charge you for the privilege of screening out scanners.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900642912002-12-17T13:59:00.000-08:002002-12-17T13:59:45.870-08:00

via News.com, Elcom has been found not guilty of violating the criminal copyright charges. Interesting quote: "The jury has the flexibility to think about (ElcomSoft's motives) and essentially nullify the law if they think it is overreaching," said Jefferson Scher, a partner at Carr & Ferrell. "I think there's a little O.J. factor if they decided that the law shouldn't be read as strictly as

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900639802002-12-17T12:46:00.000-08:002002-12-17T12:46:43.000-08:00

People get to my site searching for Jumpline and "leather bound Moby Dick and Kenmore vacuum cleaner manual. Unfortunately for those visitors, Google doesn't have a filter for sarcasm and irony.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900637082002-12-17T11:45:00.000-08:002002-12-17T11:47:24.000-08:00

Anil Dash on how the web changes our expectations of privacy and self-presentation.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900625292002-12-17T07:03:00.000-08:002002-12-17T07:03:02.640-08:00

is distinguishing between black and navy blue in early mornings and dark closets.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900624062002-12-17T06:36:00.000-08:002002-12-17T11:52:09.000-08:00

In an email, David Weinberger corrected the urban legend version of his bio, which is that he left philosophy to write jokes for Woody Allen. "Well, it's a nice myth, but I wrote gags for WA's comic strip while I was teaching. I left teaching because there were no tenure slots open where I taught."Too bad, I like the fictional version better. Not that far off though. David thinks that I

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900579112002-12-16T07:09:00.000-08:002002-12-16T16:32:59.000-08:00

I recently read Small Pieces Loosely Joined, by David Weinberger. This piece is in part a review, and in part a reflection and extension of Weinberger's themes. "Small Pieces" is a meditation on the influence of the internet on our understanding of the world, which sounds a lot heavier than the book reads. To appreciate the tone of the book, keep Dr. Weinberger's bio in mind; he ditched a

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900555902002-12-15T14:46:00.000-08:002002-12-15T14:47:14.000-08:00

from Russ Beattie

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900552562002-12-15T12:37:00.000-08:002002-12-15T12:37:07.266-08:00

There are a bunch of hands-on household tasks that I'd rather be doing; planting cool-weather flowers; blowing leaves off the garden plots, picking a few yellow leaves off the rosebush installing the new filter in the hot tub (which I still haven't sold); some necessary vermin-prevention (you don't want to know); fixing the plastic cover I broke on one of the closet fluorescent light fixtures (

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3900551312002-12-15T11:49:00.000-08:002002-12-15T11:49:15.516-08:00

Denise Howell and link trail...

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3900539792002-12-14T23:15:00.000-08:002002-12-14T23:16:56.000-08:00

You, dear reader, have pristine attention to detail, and never fail to close quotes in a blog post hyperlink. I unfortunately slip every once in a while and leave off the close-quote, creating an unreadable post that can't be removed from within the weblog editing interface. Fortunately, it's possible to remove an offending post using the XML-RPC interface to the major blog tools. Since I'm

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900556422002-12-14T16:05:00.000-08:002002-12-15T15:29:09.000-08:00

Woke up in time to go to synagogue on Saturday morning, though I didn't get there quite on time. Today was one of those Saturdays when I really only feel awake after an afternoon nap. The minyan was held at the building of the non-denominational synagogue, with some members of that congregation. The rabbi, who was trained reform, is reaching out to the traditional-egalitarian minyanim, and they

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900522192002-12-14T07:37:00.000-08:002002-12-14T22:43:18.000-08:00

From a discussion on the O'Reilly article, copyright and policy, on the EFF-Austin mailing list, Doug Barnes wrote: Although the O'Reilly article is certainly thought-provoking and raised a number of good points, I think it's a mistake to try to reclaim the term "piracy" from its conventional meaning of "bad, illegal copying" to include "justified, but nonetheless illegal copying." Except for

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900522362002-12-12T19:46:00.000-08:002002-12-14T16:18:58.000-08:00

About 9:30 pm. It was damp, about 50. I love running in cool weather. I've been doing the Rodney Yee yoga tape several times a week and then running/swimming occasionally. Happy that I can still do the Stacy Park run (1.5-2 mi) without stopping. Basic fitness is good. I ran the way back on the street. There are trees every 20 feet or so. When you're getting tired, you just run to each next tree

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900467732002-12-12T18:45:00.000-08:002002-12-12T18:46:51.000-08:00

Piracy is progressive taxation. For most authors, their enemy is obscurity, not piracy. Piracy benefits the little guy and is an irritant to the big guys For publishers, piracy is a manageable cost of doing business, like shoplifting. It doesn't kill the business -- Microsoft is profitable despite warez newsgroups Customers will pay for good digital distribution; O'Reilly's Safari is an example

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900183082002-12-12T17:46:00.000-08:002002-12-12T17:47:55.000-08:00

Mitch Ratcliffe writes that weblogs are like 18th century letters, a social form in which the literate class wrote to each other expecting to be circulated and published. Mitch's perspective on this feels right to me. Some people use weblogs as diaries. I use the weblog to publish letters. Most blog entries here, including the book reviews and news commentary, were things that I was already

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900467912002-12-11T18:35:00.000-08:002002-12-12T19:13:59.000-08:00

cloudy, chilly, damp. the leaves on the ground are red and yellow. the new grass is blue-green. sky is mottled gray. stacy creek chortles, the kids on recess run and shriek

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3900415672002-12-11T13:53:00.000-08:002002-12-11T14:24:02.000-08:00

Writing about the copyright dinner, Chip Rosenthal says: During the discussion of public domain, a metaphor occurred to me that I kind of like. I suggested that the public domain is becoming considered a creative junkyard, where we cast off stuff when it is no longer of value. That, of course, is not the purpose of the public domain. It would be good if we can turn this perception around, so

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900397582002-12-11T08:29:00.000-08:002002-12-11T09:46:40.000-08:00

The copyright dinner last night went well. We had a good turnout - 10 people to talk about copyright issues. It was a smart, knowledgable crowd with diverse interests -- code, art, law. We had an interesting conversation about problems with current copyright policy, and ways that we can fight bad laws and change people's understandings about culture as property. The discussion was more

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900393182002-12-11T06:55:00.000-08:002002-12-15T14:53:41.000-08:00

Greg Elin, who really needs a weblog whose brand new weblog is here, from a mailing list Most of the efforts of "electronic publishing" have been about how to make READING a better experience. But the READING experience is actually very well solved by linear text (e.g., books, articles, etc.) So the big money went into systems for more varied DISTRIBUTION of information already being written.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900395572002-12-11T06:48:00.000-08:002002-12-11T10:36:49.000-08:00

from Ed Vielmetti's Vacuum email list In thinking about how to find places to carry on my daily work, I started composing a rating guide for the mobile office location for the telecommuter. This involves the key technologies of - wireless Internet on your laptop 0 stars: no signal 1/4 star: pay-per-use rental computers 1/2 star: pay-per-use wireless; free computers 1 star

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900331302002-12-09T18:57:00.000-08:002002-12-09T19:00:23.000-08:00

None of the blog chat/ IM tools I've tried has worked so far -- need to take the Yahoo button down at left because it doesn't work. The blogchat beta technically worked, but it took a multi-step process. Not only did you need to open a browser with your blog up, you needed to go to their site and log in with a password. Also, the sound notification feature requires flash, and I don't have flash

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3900329182002-12-09T17:17:00.000-08:002002-12-09T17:17:33.570-08:00

via David Weinberger blogging the session at Supernova "Cory Doctorow is reminding us that "content creators" have always sued new technologies, starting with those music pirates, the piano roll manufacturers. Now it's the Broadcast Flag initiative that will put a bit into digital TV signals and require all devices touching them to honor that bit. He gives a terrific talk — seated and calm —

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900328302002-12-09T16:37:00.000-08:002002-12-09T16:38:10.000-08:00

Chis Gulker did some research, and found that... If you want more readers, you should become famous and, lacking that, write frequent, long posts about stuff that you know well. Encourage inbound links, but don't worry about outbound.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900328142002-12-09T16:30:00.000-08:002002-12-09T16:31:13.000-08:00

says euan semple

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900306482002-12-09T07:30:00.000-08:002002-12-09T08:13:47.000-08:00

The Supernova conference organized by Kevin Werbach, is getting started this morning in California. The shindig is about decentralization -- open spectrum, weblogs, WiFi, web services -- new forms of decentralized communications, emergent social organization, and grass-roots content that will take down the dinosaurs of industrial bureaucracy and the behemoths of mass media and telecom. I have

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900287592002-12-08T16:40:00.000-08:002002-12-08T16:52:59.000-08:00

Ruta Maya just opened on Thursday in my neighborhood. That's a Central-American themed coffee importer, coffee house, music venue and all around hangout. For those of you in Austin, it's on South Congress in a strange, artsy-hip new professional office park, behind, of all places, the Expose strip club. Now I need to get a wireless card, and I'll have a coffee-shop office, which I've been

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900280482002-12-08T12:02:00.000-08:002002-12-08T12:02:19.056-08:00

Reading some articles by Siva Vaidhyanathan in preparation for an EFF-Austin copyright dinner on Tuesday. Great quote lifted from a SlashDot interview. SV: I think the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is misnamed. I don't consider it a copyright act. I consider it an anti-copyright act. Copyright is a fluid, open, democratic set of protocols. Conflicts are anticipated by Congress and

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900258612002-12-07T13:24:00.000-08:002002-12-07T13:25:05.000-08:00

Here's a little python script that can post to a blog entry via email. It can be configured to post to any weblog that supports the blogger API, using the python wrapper written by Mark Pilgrim.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900248872002-12-07T06:25:00.000-08:002002-12-07T06:35:35.000-08:00

via Slashdot The article uses examples mostly from developer-oriented projects like Linux and Gnome. Some of their premises seem obsolete. There are new generations of open source software being designed for humans, not just arch-geeks. Examples include weblog software: MovableType; and email/PIM software: Spaces, OSAF. These projects deliberately consider usability. On the other hand, some

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900249382002-12-07T06:03:00.000-08:002002-12-07T06:47:10.000-08:00

via Dan Gillmor One 36-year-old U.S. law can be broken, it seems. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who is sworn to enforce all laws, has told federal employees that they can bend -- perhaps even break -- one law, and he will even defend their actions in court. That law is known as the Freedom of Information Act.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900217872002-12-06T08:02:00.000-08:002002-12-06T08:02:59.000-08:00

CERES: Company executives could find themselves losing protection against climate change-related liability claims brought by shareholders. SwissRe, the world's second-largest reinsurer, has announced it will withdraw coverage of such claims for senior executives of companies that fail to adopt adequate climate change policies. In the November issue of Environmental Finance, Roger Wenger of

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900217082002-12-06T07:47:00.000-08:002002-12-06T08:00:06.000-08:00

operating system for web services how Apple iTunes and iMovie assume that individuals create their own digital assets will Passport and Amazon One-Click evolve into an ATM network? and more

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900215832002-12-06T07:24:00.000-08:002002-12-06T07:26:13.000-08:00

What's the difference between Chanukah and an SUV? Chanukah is about a day's worth of oil lasting 8 days, whereas an SUV is about 8 days worth of oil lasting one day. via Gil Friend

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900181392002-12-05T12:14:00.000-08:002002-12-05T12:48:20.000-08:00

via Google news A pair of biologists propose that tiny honeycombs within minerals may have served as the first cells, incubating the first self-replicating life forms. This proposal contrasts with theories that life started with the emergence of self-replicating chemicals, and cellular boundaries evolved later.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900122552002-12-04T06:22:00.000-08:002002-12-04T06:22:11.820-08:00

Why would someone build a model of the starship Enterprise in legos? Because of micro-fame, says Tom Coates. On the internet, everyone can find the 15 other people who are interested in the same obscure hobby. "There's now an audience for the strangest and smallest little projects. All the disconnected people around the world who might find a Lego Enterprise cool are suddenly connected up. It's

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900089952002-12-04T05:51:00.000-08:002002-12-05T12:54:37.000-08:00

... in which doc asks for more credit for acknowledging the contributions of feminism. Requested and granted :-) Especially since Doc regularly cites the girls in the gang as a matter of course. That's why I was surprised and disappointed to see such apparent misreading of history. Halley doesn't get off so easy because of the historical errors and propaganda-swallowing, as Sheila anwered so

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900079322002-12-03T07:57:00.000-08:002002-12-03T09:36:51.000-08:00

Lotta response to Halley's Girlism blog entries, which bug the heck out of me. Basically, Halley is in favor of using one's feminine wiles to get ahead in the workplace. "Women want to be sexy girls and use all the tricks girls use. Crying, flirting, begging, winking, stomping their feet when they don't get their way, general trotting around showing off their long legs and whatever else they

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900078882002-12-03T07:45:00.000-08:002002-12-03T07:45:36.000-08:00

They're really funny. I must have missed last year, didn't remember consulting.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900043622002-12-02T09:36:00.000-08:002002-12-02T09:36:49.016-08:00

Washington Post story here.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-900024972002-12-01T21:26:00.000-08:002002-12-01T21:27:10.000-08:00

Thanks to Jerry for the link, and to Swamy for some education on the subject. It is pretty amazing how often American and European books on the history of science and technology contain obvious errors of fact when they discuss the "discovery" and "invention" of various ideas and techniques.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3900013632002-12-01T13:47:00.000-08:002002-12-04T07:09:25.000-08:00

My very favorite non-fiction books are based on a foundation of substantive research, knit together by compelling human stories (Common Ground; J. Anthony Lukas on the Boston busing crisis), or an interesting and persuasive argument (More Work for Mother, Ruth Schwartz Cowan on the impact of technology on housework). There are many books that I like very much that don't live up to this standard

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857293632002-11-29T12:05:00.000-08:002002-11-29T12:05:09.676-08:00

see y'all next week.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3857287912002-11-29T08:06:00.000-08:002002-11-29T08:14:04.000-08:00

New blog database shows who links to your blog and lets you watch your rank in the blog hierarchy; and provides a for-pay service to track your blog ranking. What I like: lets you discover inbound links. What I don't like: treats blogs like a high school popularity contest. The single-peaked popularity ranking obscures "subcommunity" patterns -- there are knots of java bloggers and political

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857268702002-11-29T07:30:00.000-08:002002-11-29T08:43:51.000-08:00

says Pete Kaminski.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857268642002-11-29T07:29:00.000-08:002002-11-29T07:30:46.000-08:00

From from Timothy Appnell at O'Reilly; Ebay, Yahoo Groups and Calendar, PayPal, more.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857286812002-11-29T07:25:00.000-08:002002-11-29T07:30:20.000-08:00

A news feature about how China's economic growth has outstripped India A Kristof column talks about the Chinese government's coverup of an AIDS crisis in rural areas, set of by a government blood-collection program Ascience story writes about high rates of suicide in the Chinese countryside The glowing numbers that support the first story do not include the provincial poverty shown in the other

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857266512002-11-28T11:47:00.000-08:002002-11-28T11:47:50.000-08:00

Tim Bratcher

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857263002002-11-28T09:20:00.000-08:002002-12-02T09:44:18.000-08:00

Scott Rosenberg asks a really good question about why the Pentagon's war plans keep showing up on newspaper front pages.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857181732002-11-26T07:05:00.000-08:002002-11-26T07:06:04.000-08:00

The O'Reilly editors talk about rich web clients. More of the editors seem to like Flash. The articulate comments favor non-proprietary approaches using XHTML, XUL, SVG. Some tasty links in there to follow up.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3857126882002-11-25T00:12:00.000-08:002002-11-25T00:12:10.556-08:00

Caught a fun show at the Clay Pit this weekend, with Ganesh, a percussionist visiting from Madras, India, who has played with Max Roach, Zakir Hussein, Glen Velez and is currently recording with both Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and the Violent Femmes. The musicians on stage had varying levels of fluency in traditional Indian and Middle Eastern classical music, bluegrass, blues, jazz, rock, and

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857126112002-11-24T23:28:00.000-08:002002-11-24T23:47:35.000-08:00

I recently read the one-volume synopsis of SD Goitein's five-volume masterwork summarizing Goitein's research in the Cairo Geniza. A geniza is a synagogue's repository of worn-out texts. In the Jewish tradition it is forbidden to dispose of texts that mention the name of God; and ordinary legal documents, business documents, and personal letters often mentioned the deity. The Cairo Geniza is a

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857080262002-11-23T06:43:00.000-08:002002-11-23T06:43:49.000-08:00

LENTILS WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND WALNUTS, from Epicurious I tripled the recipe to serve a larger group. The cookbook says the recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less; if you need to make more, leave more time for all of the chopping. Also, I microwaved the squash til it was easy to peel and slice, and then combined the first two cooking steps. 1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound) 1

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857034952002-11-21T22:06:00.000-08:002002-11-21T22:17:22.000-08:00

It reads your blogroll and gives you recommended sites that you might like, using data from Phil Pearson’s Blogging Ecosystem. Like Amazon's recommendations, you can tell it which recommendations you've read already or aren't interested in, and it will update the list of recommendations. Mark does an insightful thing with the algorithm, which works by: looking at the sites I currently read in

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-857004642002-11-21T06:38:00.000-08:002002-11-21T06:46:57.000-08:00

Christian Science monitor interview with the journalist who's been covering the bill. Good mid-level overview of the content and implications of the bill. "Secrecy is also a chief concern among critics. The Homeland Security Department's actions will largely be exempt from Freedom of Information Act oversight by ordinary citizens and will be subject to a decreased level of congressional

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856961682002-11-20T07:06:00.000-08:002002-11-20T07:15:34.000-08:00

Joel Spolsky's mailing list got spamblocked too. p.s. The problem seems to have cleared up, presumably thanks to Earthlink.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-3856905792002-11-18T22:26:00.000-08:002002-11-18T22:34:32.000-08:00

...on a project over the last few weeks, with a group of geographically dispersed colleagues. For the most part the experience has been quite pleasant. For folks who aren't familiar with wikis, they're collaborative web spaces that anyone can edit. Benefits * The wiki is used to post meeting times, resources for the group, and for individuals to post what they're working on. * We typically

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856881312002-11-18T22:00:00.000-08:002002-11-18T22:38:13.000-08:00

Fellow lizard fan

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856884032002-11-18T10:34:00.000-08:002002-11-20T07:05:37.000-08:00

from Kurt Hanson's blog, via SlashDot "In a stunning victory for webcasting, both the Senate and the House of Representatives unanimously passed a revised version of H.R. 5469 late last night that clears the way for copyright owners to offer webcasters a percentage-of-revenues royalty rate, essentially allowing the parties to mutually agree to override the CARP decision of last spring."

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856879852002-11-18T08:47:00.000-08:002002-11-18T08:47:59.750-08:00

Blogstreet searches a database of 28,000 blogs. Blogstreet can show which blogs are related to other blogs. If you type in a Blog URL, Blogstreet will show you a list of related blogs derived from their blogroll, and the list of blogs that blogroll it. This would be even more helpful if the neighborhood was assembled using topics and other references. After all, it's easy enough to blogrollsurf

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856862832002-11-17T20:48:00.000-08:002002-11-17T20:48:11.100-08:00

So I was thinking about the latest worrisome developments, like John "Iran-Contra" Poindexter running a Defense Department program to set up a vast data mining operation, which will sift through credit card records, medical records, travel records, and email, along with government and legal records, on a vast and random fishing expedition for signs of potential crime. No prior cause, no warrants

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856856782002-11-17T16:20:00.000-08:002002-11-17T18:56:23.000-08:00

Late last week I got a return email with a distressing header: > SPAM: -------------------- Start SpamAssassin results ---------------------- > SPAM: This mail is probably spam. The original message has been altered > SPAM: so you can recognise or block similar unwanted mail in future. > SPAM: See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details. SpamAssassin has been flagging my email as spam!

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856795162002-11-15T08:57:00.000-08:002002-11-15T08:57:32.283-08:00

John Udell writes about a new system that Delta has designed to give passengers waiting at the gate more information about the boarding process, like updates on how many people have checked in, and the state of the standby list. Sounds really helpful for those times you're standing there anxiously waiting to see if you'll get on the flight.

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856748082002-11-14T06:15:00.000-08:002002-11-14T06:25:58.000-08:00

Reflecting on David's puzzlement about the Jews and software meeting in Boston the other day, I recalled this Joel Spolsky essay on how reading code is like studying Talmud, in that it is best done in pairs, puzzling through and arguing about the meaning of the text. When you think about it, the "link" form of the weblog has similarities to the classical Jewish form of text commentary. The

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856688832002-11-12T18:49:00.000-08:002002-11-12T19:03:25.000-08:00

Intriguing Advogato essay by GaryM, sparked by David Gelernter's NYT advertorial on the obsolescence of the file cabinet metaphor for organizing data. "David Gelernter's thinly disguised advertising piece Forget the Files and the Folders: Let Your Screen Reflect Life, for all it's absurdities, is still something of a thread of a good idea in his "narrative file system" thesis: the idea of

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856683732002-11-12T15:42:00.000-08:002002-11-12T15:46:49.000-08:00

Check out the list of titles in this British Airways registration form. It is too funny. They serve people from many regions and cultures with different languages (Herr, Fraulein, Monsieur, Sheikh). There are special needs, such as serving Muslims on pilgrimage (Alhaji). England is a class-conscious society, so they probably had customers wanting to register with their social and military

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3676627.post-856684522002-11-12T15:13:00.000-08:002002-11-12T16:14:46.000-08:00

... this afternoon, looking for a book on Perl, for some weekend entertainment that I'll tell you about if and when it's closer to working. In the computer aisle, a retired gentleman approached me and asked me for advice. He did some hobbyist programming in BASIC 20 years ago, balancing his checkbook and doing calculations for a rather complicated-sounding home construction project (had to do

Adinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10279781785237731478noreply@blogger.com