Accept no substitutes

Author: Paul (Page 37 of 146)

NYTimes on Facebook and Sockpuppets

Breaking from the puzzle this morning, I found two interesting articles that will be getting play on the net and they deserve that play. I’m passing on the American company that developed the people tracking system for China as I think there should be a longer and even more thoughtful investigative piece to come out on that later.

There is a good article on the ConnectU vs Facebook suit, “Who Owns the Concept if No One Signs the Papers?” by Jason Pontin. Pontin contents, citing some smart lawyers, that ConnectU will lose as it had no contract and no NDA or non-compete with Facebook’s Zuckerberg. Lessons here for young entrepreneurs.

John Mackey, granola baron of Whole Foods, and his sock puppetry get the attention of Christopher Caldwell in the Sunday Magazine as he writes “Not Being There” about online identity and anonymity. Just what are the rules and social norms when it comes to identity and anonymity on the Net? If you were born before 1970, you don’t really know says Caldwell — so tell me.

I (heart) SXPHW

Went out to Saxapahaw to take in the Farmer’s Market and Django Haskins show. This is Django solo and non-electric for the most part. The Farmer’s Market has really grown and expanded. The winery across the road has a nice selection and a tasting table. Several folks are selling locally made cheeses. And there was a taco truck! Not with tacos but with BBQ Joint BBQ and Gumbo. Yummmm! Heather was nice enough to give us an SXPHW sticker to go with out Cackalacky one. Sally has pictures here.

Django’s set list:
A new song that begins “Face like a window”*
Morning Glory
American Romeo
Boy Prince*
Poison Pen
Ready to Go*
Stubborn Man*
Ole
Never Felt Better
There won’t be any more (written by Charlie Rich – only non-original in the set)
Talk Straight
Bao Qian
Blood and Oil
State Road Valentine
Green Grass of Elsewhere
Evergreen
Get to Love
Plane Song
Don’t be afraid of love
Boomerang

*=unreleased

“Novell owns Unix, not SCO” says court

SCO Group who claimed to own Unix and therefore, in their suit against IBM, Linux, has been found to never have owned Unix in any way shape or form in the first place.

Groklaw’s version of the story and Wall Street Journal says “Court Ruling Gives Novell Copyright in Unix System”.

Finally and briefly ComputerWorld reports:

Groklaw reports (and, as usual, has the actual decision) that SCO Group has just lost virtually everything left of its lawsuits against IBM and Novell over Linux.

According to the ruling issued today by U.S. District Court Judge Dale Kimball:

* Novell is the owner of the Unix copyrights. As a result, SCO’s suit gainst Novell for “slander of title” is dismissed.
* Novell also has the contractual right to waive any claims of misuse of Unix by IBM (which Novell has repeatedly done). As a result, much if not all of SCO’s suit against IBM will shortly be dismissed.
* SCO must pay Novell at least some of the license fees paid under its SCOSource program by Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and other licensees.

No reaction from IBM or SCO, but SCO will presumably appeal.

Novell’s official statement as of 6pm PDT:

From Joe LaSala, Novell senior vice president and general counsel:

“In the spring of 2003, Novell set out to ensure that SCO’s groundless claims would not interfere with the development of Linux. Today’s court ruling vindicates the position Novell has taken since the inception of the dispute with SCO, and it settles the issue of who owns the copyrights of UNIX in Novell’s favor. The court’s ruling has cut out the core of SCO’s case and, as a result, eliminates SCO’s threat to the Linux community based upon allegations of copyright infringement of UNIX. We are extremely pleased with the outcome.”

When will AI surpass human-level intelligence?

Bruce Klein asks a bunch of folks the question above is a brief survey that looked like this (once I filled it in):

+Paul, quick question… when do you think AI will surpass human-level intelligence?

caveat: AI isn’t attacking the full spectrum of known human intelligence.
In the case of simple to nearly complex logic. AI is there. In the case of
social and emotional and situational intelligences, perhaps never or at
least not until we understand those intelligences well enough to model
them.

that said here’s a stab at general intelligence and AI

+[ ] 2010-20
+[X] 2020-30 (complex logic)
+[ ] 2030-50
+[ ] 2050-70
+[ ] 2070-2100
+[ ] Beyond 2100
+[ ] Prefer not to make predictions
+[X] Other: see caveat above


Results and an opportunity to fill in the survey yourself here.

ID at Goddard: Noon TODAY!

David id McConville writes to alert us that he is giving a presentation at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center about collaborations between media artists, scientists, and educators to use visualization tools for encouraging big picture thinking TODAY at Noon. NASA: Committee for Education & Public Outreach – Calendar for more.

If you can’t get to Goddard today, you can still watch or listen to David’s talk:

Off Site Access
This talk will be Webcast at: http://mediaman.gsfc.nasa.gov/asx/Public/Live/Building33Live.asx

NOTE: You will need to have Microsoft MediaPlayer installed to view this Webcast. Alternatively, folks may tune in via telephone for audio only by dialing 1-866-819-9680; passcode = 990261.

Night Out with the Neighbors

Last night was the Community Night Out in Chapel Hill, Sally and I started up at the Carolina Car Wash where Carrboro meets Chapel Hill and walked with what began as a small group through the Northside neighborhood. The group grew dramatically as we strolled through the neighborhood toward the Hargraves Center. News and Observer reporter Meiling Arounnarath captures a bit of the walk in this article (see the Chapel Hill section) Communities have a night of resolve along with several quotes from me.

Fakes, Faces, Open Invention Net

The best essay on Fake Steve Jobs is on CNet by Caroline McCarthy “Fake Steve Jobs, Banksy, and the cult of anonymity” in a caption she (or her editor) notices “Fake Steve Jobs got outed, but none of these Brooklyn concert-goers really cared. Oh, well.” Pretty much gets it down.

Facebook is a target of several suits. No surprise. But better also of an article about walled gardens in Wired, “Slap in the Facebook: It’s Time for Social Networks to Open Up” by Scott Gilbertson which includes a stab at a solution with a wiki and discussion here, “Replace Facebook Using Open Social Tools”.

Chris DiBona announces that Google is joining the Open Invention Network

Nine words of Wisdom on karaoke

I talked for a long time with News and Observer reporters about copyright, ASCAP, and karaoke performances in local bars. Of course it’s not only about karaoke; it’s about all performance of the works of artists, composers and publishers represented by ASCAP. Any how, I got nine words into print edgewise: “The law is about performance rights for the creators,” but also read it in context here. Yes, it’s about more than that. I know. I said more.
I applaud The Cave in Chapel Hill for their sign and their policy “Attention all musicians: No cover songs. Original music only.”

I (heart) BarCampRDU, Weird Al, and Fiesta Grill

My weekend in three locations.

BarCampRDU (Flickr photos tagged barcamprdu and technorati posts tagged barcamprdu)

Weird Al at Carowinds exceeded expectations as they say in school surveys. His parody of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” as “Fat” done in a fat suit was one of the best of his many many costumed performances.

I cannot say enough good things about the food at the Fiesta Grill. If the Fiesta were closer than the taco trucks, I’d only eat Mexican at the Fiesta.

Security Theatre is it required?

NYTimes’ Brad Stone reflects on a talk by Mr. Security Bruce Schneier at the Black Hat Conference in “The Weird Pyschology of Security.”

Schneier’s talk is broader than Stone’s focus (see link to entire talk below) but Stone gets it right in this conclusion:

Mr. Schneier’s message: It’s foolish to ask us to be rational about risks. And sometimes “security theater” – like the stuff we see at the airport – can actually have a purpose when there’s a need to reassure people that they really are safe. But such displays can still be harmful when there are no solid security measures to back them up.

Read the entire talk at Schneier’s site.

Geocaching without GPS

Just posted to GeekDad at the Wired blogs.

Where’s Tucker?
–He’s out looking for a geocache.
We don’t have a GPS.
–He says he doesn’t need one. He has Google maps.

It’s not as hard as you might think go geocaching without any equipment other than an iPhone or even staring hard at a laptop before you go or, carbon watchers close your ears, print a map. In this case, we live within a quarter mile of the cache. But here’s what Tucker had done (and you can do too).

Geofinding
Go to geocaching.com
Enter your address in the "Search with Google Maps" box.
Hit enter and be amazed how many geocaches are nearby!
Get the coordinates and description of a nearby geocache.
Put the coordinates into Google Maps and switch to Satellite view.
Zoooooom waaaaay in.
Memorize or bookmark on the iPhone.
Wander around and let the clues lead you.

Once you find the geocache, fill out the finders log at the site and online.

Repeat at other geocaches.

Eight random facts meme

I’ve been tagged by someone who already knows all of my secrets and wants to know more. So’s I’m to reveal eight random facts about me and then tag 8 people who are asked to do the same. Here goes:

  1. My head was completely shaved until I was 13 year old. But I’m making up for that now.
  2. As far as eggplant goes, I’ve had my fill. I experienced complete Tantric overkill one summer in Turkey during which a different eggplant dish was served to me every day for two weeks. I now avoid eggplant dishes.
  3. I have never been in South America.
  4. Every morning I finish the NYTimes Crossword before going to work — except for Fridays.
  5. One of the poems I first published in News and Observer disappeared from their archives but no matter a copy ended up on a website in South Africa.
  6. I failed freshman English the first time through. Two misspelled words and you were out. I was always out. Thank gawd fore cumpoterz.
  7. For a year, I lived in an airy farm house that I heated with wood in the winter. That as a bad idea. But now that same place is the home to Mark Hewitt’s Pottery.
  8. I spent one Spring Break during college working for Manpower and bagging little pine seedlings for Arbor Day. The rest of the crew were alcoholic Viet Nam vets. I got the boss to buy us all rubber gloves on the second day. We all had cracked hands on the first day. As a reward I was allowed to seal the bags instead of sticking my hands in the water. And my friends the vets all offered to buy me drinks.

I tag Danica, Kevin, Bora, Cathy, Anton, Kelly Jo, Jeff, and Bascha.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 The Real Paul Jones

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑