Paraguayan complex owners charged
Grok Headline matches for Paraguayan complex owners charged
Paraguayan Market Owner Charged for Fire
(AP)
Paraguayan Market Owner Charged for Fire
(AP)
08/03/2004 08:10 PMAP - Authorities filed manslaughter charges Tuesday against an owner
of a Paraguayan supermarket that caught fire, killing at least 464
people, local media reported.
GUI Now Too Complex -- Longhorn
GUI Now Too Complex -- Longhorn
07/21/2004 09:27 AMThe classic graphical user interface was well suited to an early
Macintosh with 128kB of RAM that ran a few applications and about 50
files, "but it doesn't scale", says usability design specialist Don
Norman. By Stephen Bell, Computerworld New Zealand (via MyAppleMenu)
Security complex
Security complex
12/31/2004 04:44 AMBoston Globe Dec 31 2004 8:39AM GMT
B&N's Complex Simplicity
B&N's Complex Simplicity
06/04/2004 12:37 PMRecent filings for Barnes & Noble contain an array of related-party
transactions, each of which deserves scrutiny.
Navigation Complex
Navigation Complex
12/18/2002 05:02 AMSearches Get More Complex
Searches Get More Complex
02/10/2004 02:44 AMNew study shows, " Of all the search phrases world wide, 32.58 percent
of the people use 2 word phrases, 25.61 percent use 3 word phrases and
19.02 percent use a 1 word phrase."
IPOs Getting Too Complex?
IPOs Getting Too Complex?
08/17/2004 01:10 PMIPOs are risky enough. Why are some companies making them more
confusing?
Cache complex objects
Cache complex objects
08/16/2004 02:41 AMCNET Aug 16 2004 7:13AM GMT
Complex Operators QuickList
Complex Operators QuickList
08/23/2004 01:20 AMDiabetes websites too complex
Diabetes websites too complex
09/12/2004 07:05 AMNews.bbc.co.uk - Sun Sep 12, 09:41 am GMT
Unwiring an apartment complex
Unwiring an apartment complex
05/19/2004 10:32 AMFun online piece about setting up free wireless broadband access for a
small apartment complex -- and how the unwiring paid for itself by
helping fill empty units.
LinkChina had first complex machines
China had first complex machines
06/10/2004 05:56 PMCraftsmen in ancient China were using complex machines to work
jewellery long before such devices are traditionally thought to have
been invented.
GUI now too complex — Longhorn designer
GUI now too complex — Longhorn designer
07/22/2004 09:41 AMCPM - Complex Project Manager
CPM - Complex Project Manager
11/07/2003 02:07 AMSF website created
Cockpit-complex watch
Cockpit-complex watch
08/03/2004 11:00 AM
This ass-kicking, cockpit-looking new Citizen watch is a) only
available in Japan and b) out of my price range. Life sucks.
Link
(
via Red Ferret Journal)
GUI now too complex — Longhorn
designer
GUI now too complex — Longhorn
designer
07/21/2004 11:39 PMThe classic graphical user interface was well suited to an early
Macintosh with 128kB of RAM that ran a few applications and about 50
files, “but it doesn’t scale”, says usability design specialist
Don Norman.
With those few tasks the GUI was a boon. “You didn’t have to
remember anything, because you could see everything. Now making
everything visible doesn’t work. The space gets too crowded.”
PHPMath, Creating Complex Equations
PHPMath, Creating Complex Equations
11/10/2003 11:34 PMPHPMath.com talks about the development of tools that would read an
arbitrary xml document and look for latex and graphviz markup tags.
...
Israeli Nuclear Complex Online
Israeli Nuclear Complex Online
07/04/2004 02:00 PMWired News Jul 4 2004 5:07PM GMT
University gets £1m complex systems
grant
University gets £1m complex systems
grant
05/18/2004 07:24 AMBoost for UK research
Users see new HP management tool as
useful, but complex
Users see new HP management tool as
useful, but complex
06/16/2004 04:29 PMHP's OpenView Business Process Insight tool for measuring revenue
impact of system failures is seen as a useful but complex product.
Making Visualizations of Complex
Information
Making Visualizations of Complex
Information
12/03/2003 06:08 PMMaking Visualizations of Complex Information
Accessiblehttp://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2003/09/call-vis-papers.html The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative's Research and Development
Interest Group is extending the call for papers for its teleconference
on the accessibility and visualization of complex information. They
are seeking position papers from researchers and practitioners
(academia, industry, government, consulting) on state of the art work
in visualization technologies. Position papers are due 12 December.
The telecon is tentatively 26 January 2004 and will include real-time
transcription to ensure audio accessibility. Please refer to the above
call for papers for more information.
Carnage Leavened by Complex Twists
Carnage Leavened by Complex Twists
05/27/2004 01:47 AMFor knitters willing to spend a little time in cyberspace, there can
be found yarn, advice and fellowship.
Tiny Fossils Could Be First Complex
Animals
Tiny Fossils Could Be First Complex
Animals
06/04/2004 12:59 AMComplex Passwords Foil Hacks
Complex Passwords Foil Hacks
05/31/2004 09:52 PMVia Geeknews.net: “Stevan Hoffacker follows those rules but
commits a different faux pas: He uses the same password everywhere,
including access to multiple e-mail accounts, Amazon.com, The New York
Times’ website and E-ZPass electronic toll statements. In such
cases, should hackers or scammers compromise one account, they
potentially have one’s entire online life.”
Hacking Sparks Need for Complex
Passwords (AP)
Hacking Sparks Need for Complex
Passwords (AP)
05/31/2004 12:40 PMAP - As more Web sites demand passwords, scammers are getting more
clever about stealing them. Hence the need for such "passwords-plus"
systems.
Hacking Sparks Need for Complex
Passwords
Hacking Sparks Need for Complex
Passwords
05/31/2004 12:37 PMAP via Newsday May 31 2004 5:13PM GMT
FCC Chairman Complex
Counter-Revolutionary
FCC Chairman Complex
Counter-Revolutionary
11/11/2003 01:10 AMOne thing's for certain: you can't call Michael Powell, the chairman
of the FCC, anything but smart: Powell is simultaneously the strongest
advocate for innovative uses of wireless spectrum that has ever held
the office of chairman, while also an incredible defender of big media
and its desires. This article goes a long way towards reconciling the
two sides, while painting a clear picture of his deep intelligence....
Writing complex interrupt handlers in C
Writing complex interrupt handlers in C
09/09/2002 10:39 PMCNET Sep 9 2002 10:11PM ET
Complex Dynamic Lists: Your Order Please
Complex Dynamic Lists: Your Order Please
06/05/2005 11:24 PMHelp your site's visitors reach their goals quickly with a dynamic
menu that takes its cue from the Mac OS X Finder.
Prevent a Web Services Insecurity
Complex
Prevent a Web Services Insecurity
Complex
07/14/2004 01:47 PMInternet News Jul 14 2004 5:43PM GMT
Domestic Security: Some Complex Thinking
Domestic Security: Some Complex Thinking
03/29/2005 11:30 PM
The Idea:
Maybe the reason we can't agree on how to deal with terrorism is that
we're all using illogical, inappropriate and overly simplistic
thinking. If we used 'complex thinking' would we stop arguing and
start
getting somewhere?
It is likely that the
Department
of Homeland Security (which is now the largest state-run organization
on the planet) will go down in history as the poorest investment in
human history -- an operation that has churned through trillions of
dollars (possibly enough to eradicate world poverty and a dozen of the
biggest killer diseases on the planet at the same time), and
accomplished absolutely nothing. The insidious nature of such
'security' programs is that no one can ever say for sure they haven't
or might not yet prevent a catastrophe -- US government intelligence
is
now a black hole that sucks up money and from which nothing ever
escapes.
A recent article by
John Tirman argues that progressives have missed a great opportunity
to
stake out an alternative strategy for security that would be modestly
less expensive than the conservative strategy that has been used since
Bush took office, more effective, and provide a host of other social
and environmental benefits in the process. The gist of his argument is
shown in the first three columns below. I've added as a fourth column
the preventative strategy that I have argued for on these pages, which
has also been advocated in a number of European newspapers.
SECURITY
AGENDA
|
Conservative
|
Progressive - Domestic
Focus
|
Progressive -
International Focus
|
Domestic Security Strategy
|
Offensive: Preemptively attack foreign nations that
might threaten domestic security
|
Defensive: Improve domestic infrastructure to
enhance preparedness
|
Preventative: Improve global infrastructure to
reduce animosity
|
Spending Priority
|
Defense, 'intelligence'-gathering, prisons and
interrogation
|
Domestic health, education
|
Humanitarian and infrastructure aid globally and
domestically
|
Investment in Direct Security
|
Massive and unprecedented
|
Significant
|
Negligible
|
Response Strategy
|
Bolster police and emergency services, suspend
civil liberties as expendable
|
Bolster police and emergency services but balance
against need to protect civil liberties
|
No
response: The world is too big to protect against all such threats,
and
civil liberties are sacrosanct (that's what we're defending)
|
Treatment of Domestic and
Border-Crossing Minorities
|
Persecute, prosecute and deport without due
process
|
Heightened bureaucracy but with due process
|
Treated like everyone else
|
Principal Political Means of
Galvanizing Support
|
Emotional: Fear-mongering
|
Rational: Reasonable measures commensurate with the
threat
|
Emotional: Show how these people live abroad and
you'll understand their desperation
|
Approach to Protecting Energy
Supply
|
Increase
security at power plants & refineries, seize foreign oil supplies,
eliminate environmental restrictions on exploration
|
Shift to renewable energy sources and hence
decentralize sources of supply
|
Shift to renewable energy sources and hence
decentralize sources of supply |
Approach to Protecting Public
Health
|
Increased security at major health facilities,
disaster and evacuation plans, bioterror 'research'
|
Upgrade, network and decentralize public health
infrastructure
|
Upgrade, network and decentralize public health
infrastructure |
Approach to Protecting
Transportation
|
Increased security in transportation hubs, ban
identification of vehicles carrying hazmat
|
Improve mass transit and restrict transportation of
hazmat
|
Reduce transportation needs by encouraging 'buy
local' and restrict transportation of hazmat
|
Effect: Preparedness for Another
Domestic Attack
|
By their own reports, not at all prepared
|
Would be modestly better prepared
|
Not even attempting to prepare
|
My recent study of complex systems (and the politics of international
terrorism are nothing if not complex) and the approaches to dealing
with them have given me pause. All of the agendas above are designed
for complicated systems, not
complex
ones. They all presume to have a monopoly on understanding of the
cause-and-effect relationships behind acts of terror. The very terms
'deterrence', 'preemption' and 'prevention' are rooted in complicated
systems theory, and are meaningless and perhaps even dangerous when
applied to complex systems. They are all about trying to understand and exercise control over
a system that is simply unknowable and uncontrollable. Perhaps this is
why neocons and all previous imperialists have striven to impose
homogeneity over global culture, with the unattainable objective of
making us all so much alike that civilization becomes a predictable,
merely complicated system. Diversity is a dirty word to conservatives.
Progressives support diversity as a matter of principle, but have been
notoriously poor at understanding its implications -- resulting in
bizarre behaviours like 'political correctness', which no one seems to like.
Here's a quote from Dave Snowden talking over on AOK
about another social issue where conservatives and progressives
disagree completely and have tried to impose policies based on
different cause-and-effect oversimplifications. The issue is capital
punishment:
Order in complex systems emerges
from the interaction of multiple identities over time, within
boundaries around attractors. If we want to see change then it will
arise from multiple bottom-up initiatives which change the context and
make certain types of negative pattern unsustainable. To take a
political example, capital punishment has become largely an
unsustainable approach for European governments over the last fifty
years, but the same phenomenon has not yet impacted on the bulk of the
US (or several regimes who the US regard as uncivilized). In Europe
this is a pattern that has emerged from multiple interactions: cases
of
the wrong people being convicted, a gradual change to liberalization
in
multiple fields of human thinking which create a framework within
which
leaders and politicians are able to operate. For some reason this has
not happened in the US despite similar evidence plus the general data
on racial/social bias on who actually gets killed (lets not use the
word execute: it hides the reality). With the notable exception of the
film Dead Man Walking most interactions in US society create a
different type of entrainment which is the opposite of the European
position. From a personal perspective I feel a physical sense of
horror at the whole idea that you can take a human being and kill them
in some public ritual, but that is partly because of the society in
which I grew up, the political influences of a family deeply committed
to politics and an historical age which allowed that thinking to take
place.
Now this is not an argument that Europe is more enlightened that the
US
because it isnt (although it is more liberal), it's an argument
that
many different things are connected and social systems arise from
multiple interactions which cannot
be directed top down,
and it would not make a scrap of difference if you changed the mind
set
of senior leaders because their patterns personal and collective will
respond to the emergent patterns of the societies in which they
operate. The Grameen bank case that I quote in the article
is a great example of complex thinking its bottom up, no one
changed
leaders to some model of thinking, someone just went out and did
something simple which created change the more people do that
the
more chance the world has.
Apply this thinking to the Schiavo case and it will make your head
spin.
The article cited above explains the Grameen bank case as follows:
The Grameen Bank was created in
Bangladesh to provide small loans to poor people. The name Grameen
comes from the Bangla word for village. This is a market which the
conventional banking system finds unattractive. Most commercial and
private loans are based on credit scoring, an ordered concept in which
the characteristics of good and bad debtors are identified and used as
predictors and therefore controls for future lending. This increases
the cost of lending as the various processes have to be administered,
and small loans this become uneconomic. In the Grameen Bank everyone
who took out a loan was required to be a part of a self regulating
borrowers group in which each member of the group had to take
responsibility for the debts of the others. This simple rule which
costs little to administer produced a 97% repayment rate comparable
with best achievements of the large banks; there are now over two
million clients of the Grameen bank and the approach has proved both
scalable and portable. I find the Grameen Bank an inspiring case, and
an illustration of the great benefits that complex or unordered
thinking can bring. Managing the
starting conditions not an idealized end state
can produce lower cost more effective solutions. Complex thinking is
not a nice to have in modern management, it is a fundamental
necessity.
It is a new and exciting way of thinking about the world
Some of the techniques for 'complex thinking' he suggests:
- Manage by monitoring for the emergence of pattern to
sustain or disrupt, rather than managing by objective, to plan or to a
model;
- Focus on effectiveness (with requisite diversity and
allowance for inefficiency for adaptability) rather than efficiency;
- Explore don't exploit;
- Strive for resilience and adaptability not stability;
- Measure the stability of 'barriers' and 'identities',
and
the attractiveness of 'attractors', rather than using reductionist
measures like ROI;
- Simulate emergence to see the patterns of
possibility, rather than analyzing and relying on 'experts';
- Understand that our different 'identities' make
decisions
based on personal experience and stories representing collective
knowledge (we usually think of individuals making decisions based on
enlightened self-interest).
So how might we apply 'complex thinking' to domestic security? Rather
than trying to solve causality, or rank and address all of the
potential security risks, how could we discover and 'disrupt the
patterns' of acts of terror? Does this imply that until/unless we can
discover the patterns, it's a waste of time and money doing anything?
Decentralizing targets and diversifying sources of supply would seem
to
be a good way to build resilience into critical systems. What else
could we do? If we acknowledge that the barriers we have erected at
borders are unstable (and next to useless for combating terrorism,
while particularly effective at disrupting commerce and tourism), are
there other barriers we could use instead? Are there 'attractors' we
could put in place that would draw those with an axe to grind against
the West elsewhere (Iraq seems to be an unexpectedly good attractor
these days)? What kinds of simulation could we run that might help us
see what the impact on terrorist activity might be of various
interventions -- would building good schools in the Mideast help or
hurt for example? And what kind of stories can we surface and tell
that
would inform the decisions of those inclined to loathe us and act on
that loathing?
|
Simple downloads, complex change
Simple downloads, complex change
08/19/2004 09:49 AMCNN Aug 19 2004 2:03PM GMT
Complex Web of Madrid Plot Still Tangled
Complex Web of Madrid Plot Still Tangled
04/11/2004 11:46 PMInvestigators say key participants in the Madrid train bombings may
still be at large.
Complex Project Manager 2004-05-03
Complex Project Manager 2004-05-03
05/05/2004 11:28 AMA project manager.
Fire at sheltered housing complex
Fire at sheltered housing complex
08/18/2004 07:01 PMFirefighters tackle a blaze in Edinburgh and evacuate the building, as
20 residents need new accommodation.
North Korea Set to Let U.S. See Yongbyon
Complex, Report Says
North Korea Set to Let U.S. See Yongbyon
Complex, Report Says
01/02/2004 01:13 AMReuters via Wired News Jan 2 2004 0:35AM ET
10 Killed In Attack On Saudi Complex
(washingtonpost.com)
10 Killed In Attack On Saudi Complex
(washingtonpost.com)
05/30/2004 12:11 AMwashingtonpost.com - Suspected Islamic extremists wearing military
uniforms killed at least 10 people, including one American, and seized
dozens of hostages yesterday at compounds filled with foreign oil
workers and their families in the Saudi Arabian city of Khobar on the
Persian Gulf.
U.S. Groups to Visit N.Korea, May See
Atomic Complex
U.S. Groups to Visit N.Korea, May See
Atomic Complex
01/02/2004 07:22 PMReuters via Wired News Jan 2 2004 6:44PM ET
Motorola launches new office complex in
Beijing
Motorola launches new office complex in
Beijing
01/10/2004 04:55 AMPeoples Daily Online Jan 10 2004 4:46AM ET
Grok Description matches for Paraguayan complex owners charged
GrokA matches for Paraguayan complex owners charged
Paraguayan complex owners charged