Lessig's just got back form the World Summit on the Information
Society in Geneva, where he ran into the Swiss version of WiFi, a
craptacular extravaganza of telecom stupidity compounded by the irony
of hosting a summit on the "Information Society" where it's easier to
get a gift bag of conference schwag than an Internet connection.
Lessig's rant on the subject is entertaining, and it put me in mind of a section I
wrote for my novel-in-progress, "Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves
Town," which is about community wireless hackers (among other things)
and this chunk was inspired by my trip to Geneva a couple months ago
to attend the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights.
I've uploaded the relevant section.
"No problem -- outside every hotel and most of the cafes, I can
find a signal for a network called 'SwissCom.' I log on to the
network and I fire up a browser and I get a screen asking me for
my password. Well, I don't have one, but after poking around, I
find out that I can buy a card with a temporary password on it.
So I wait until some of the little smoke-shops open and start
asking them if they sell SwissCom Internet Cards, in my terrible,
miserable French, and after chuckling at my accent, they look at
me and say, 'I have no clue what you're talking about,' shrug,
and go back to work.
"Then I get the idea to go and ask at the hotels. The first one,
the guy tells me that they only sell cards to guests, since
they're in short supply. The cards are in short supply! Three
hotels later, they allow as how they'll sell me a 30-minute card.
Oh, that's fine. 30 whole minutes of connectivity. Whoopee. And
how much will that be? Only about a zillion Swiss pesos. Don't
they sell cards of larger denominations? Oh sure, two hours, 24
hours, seven days -- and each one costs about double the last, so
if you want, you can get a seven day card for about as much as
you'd spend on a day's worth of connectivity in 30-minute
increments -- about $300 Canadian for a week, just FYI.
"Well, paying 300 bucks for a week's Internet is ghastly, but
very Swiss, where they charge you if you have more than two bits
of cheese at breakfast, and hell, I could afford it. But Three
hundred bucks for a day's worth of 30-minute cards? Fuck that. I
was going to have to find a seven-day card or bust. So I ask at a
couple more hotels and finally find someone who'll explain to me
that SwissCom is the Swiss telco, and that they have a retail
storefront a couple blocks away where they'd sell me all the
cards I wanted, in whatever denominations I require.
"...imagine what would happen to Pulp Fiction if, when the
character of Jules looked into the briefcase, he "woke up" in
mid-scene and not only realized that he was a character in a movie,
but also realized that he "was" also Mace Windu and Shaft and a bunch
of other characters in realities he can scarcely comprehend, while
also glimpsing an uber-reality where all of those realities are just
movies and he's an actor called Samuel L. Jackson."
More bad shopping experiences. Recently, I bought Plantronics
MX10, an phone amplifier that connects to computer for
multimedia works and VOIP,
along with a Telex H-51 headset. Actually, I got the Hello
Direct Virtuoso before
that but returned it in favor of MX10.
When I received it, I realized that MX10 requires headsets with a
special type of
connector called Quick-Disconnect (QD). Note that
Quick-Disconnect headsets
are two to 9 times more expensive than normal computer
headsets.After
a bit of grumbling, I ordered a Symphony headset from
Headsets.com because it
was cheaper than Plantronics headsets of comparable quality.
When I got the Symphony headset, I hooked it all up but couldn't
hear the dial tone.
Hmm. I tested the headset by hooking it up directly to my
phone. There
wasn't any problem with the headset. I tried everything, even
talking to Plantronics'
very nice clueless tech person. Only conclusion I could make
was that MX10 was
defective. So off it went back to Amazon.
Today, the replacement MX10 arrived. I hooked it all up again
but same symtoms.
I switched to a different phone and was rewarded with very distant
dial tone.
Amplifier that weakens signal? I called Headsets.com tech
support this time
and got the disgusting insider news:
Headsets and phone amplifiers from different manufacturers are not
compatible with
each other although they all use Quick-Disconnect connectors.
Huh? That means Plantronics amplifiers like MX10 works only
with Plantronics
headsets and Symphony headsets will work only with Symphony
amplifiers. The
fact that they use same connector form factor is just meaningless.
Totally disgusted, I packed up everything except the Telex H-51 and
scheduled a UPS
pickup tommorrow. Since I ordered a telephony enabled modem
with my new computer,
I am gonna use that instead of fancy but insane phone
equipment. I don't know
why I haven't thought of this before. After all, I have
written a sophisticated
telephony app for a client nearly ten years ago. Maybe I'll
even write a telephony
app that will put these crappy companies out of business.
Science fictional edition of The Onion
Science fictional edition of The Onion06/22/2005 01:49 AM Cory Doctorow:
The Onion has posted a science fictional edition from the year 2056.
There are some fantastic gags here, a few that fall flat -- by and
large, though, this is some funny futurism ("Abraham Lincoln's DNA now
available over the counter!" "47th Amendment grants iPod Sufferage!")
Link
"Bloggers Select Their Favorite Fictional Characters "
ridiculopathy.com/crappy_flash_games.php?gamename=swingertrack
this site | 4 links
Japanese Broadcast Flag -- welcome to the crappy future of TV
Japanese Broadcast Flag -- welcome to the crappy future of TV05/26/2004 02:43 AM The Japanese Broadcast Flag has gone into effect. Like its American
cousin, this is a technology mandate that restricts how you can use
the shows that show up on your own television, on the grounds that you
might be some kinda eyepatch-wearing-pirate. 'Course, the broadcast
flag doesn't really stop you from capturing analog signals
and putting their programming online; no, this is a measure that is
100% ineffective at stopping "piracy" and 100% effective at stopping
new tech like VCRs from being invented without the permission of the
movie studios.
Because programs that have been copied once cannot be duplicated or
edited digitally, editing the programs via a personal computer has
become impossible.
In addition, the broadcasters' move has made it necessary for viewers
to insert a special user identification card, known as a B-CAS card,
into their digital TV sets to watch programs.
These duplication controls are being applied to digital TV programs
aired by both digital terrestrial and satellite broadcasters.
In the week after the measure was implemented, NHK and the grouping of
private broadcasters received more than 15,000 inquiries and
complaints about the scheme.
Lexicon: CC-licensed RPG based on compiling fictional encyclopedia
Lexicon: CC-licensed RPG based on compiling fictional encyclopedia04/15/2005 09:01 PM Cory Doctorow:
Morbus Iff sez, "Ghyll is a Creative Common licensed player-created
world per the rules of "Lexicon: an RPG" (think: a fictional
wikipedia, constrained by integration, consecutive letter definitions,
and cranky scholars that write before 'before scholarly pursuits
became professionalized (or possibly after they ceased to be)'). It
has reached nearly 30 players, 200 pages of text, an incredibly large
timeline, a hundred characters, and a to-scale ASCII map of the known
world. Darkly humorous? Possible. Odd? Mmhmmm. All CC? Ayup.
"We're starting Round 2 next month (in essence, starting over again at
letter A to further define the world). Notes about the announcement
here, as well as links to the timeline, characters, and ASCII map."
Link
(Thanks, Morbus!)
Race to Succeed Pope Includes Even the Fictional (Reuters)
Race to Succeed Pope Includes Even the Fictional (Reuters)04/06/2005 09:46 AM Reuters - The race is on to succeed John Paul
II as pope and bookmakers are already getting in on the act.
But not all the candidates are quite what they seem.
International Protection from Crappy Porn Week of Resistance
International Protection from Crappy Porn Week of Resistance11/06/2003 01:52 AM Now there's a (>cough<) mouthful. Anyway: the final week of
October, 2003 was declared "Protection from Pornography Week" by
President Bush. Some object to the declaration's equation of
"pornography" as a whole with child porn, or adult entertainment
produced in a coercive, exploitative manner. In other words, they
believe porn per se isn't a problem -- bad porn is.
And, by golly, they're taking action.
What do I mean by "crappy"? Well, basically, I mean pornography that
doesn't affirm what sexuality really should be all about -- or what
being a human being really should be all about. (...) So I thought I
would launch a new campaign... because I believe that what we really
need isn't to be protected from pornography, but to show resistance
against crappy pornography and support for better, sex-positive,
humane pornography that is produced without exploitation, without
perpetuating damaging stereotypes, and that fully affirms the
principle of informed, revocable consent.
Free open WiFi on Tacoma-Washington train, courtesy WiFi hacker
Free open WiFi on Tacoma-Washington train, courtesy WiFi hacker03/24/2005 08:15 PM Cory Doctorow:
A Seattle wireless hacker rides a commuter train from Tacoma every day
with a battery-powered WiFi hotspot in his backpack that's linked up
to the Internet with a 14.4 144k wireless modem. Catch his
train and get free WiFi on your commute.
The open wireless node can be found in the first car of the last
morning train and in Car 403 on the 5:10pm return trip. Use SSID
"FreeInternetAccess" or "seattlewireless" to connect - You may have to
assign yourself an IP in the range 192.168.0.0/24 and use the Default
Gateway 192.168.0.1 as the DHCP is sometimes flakey
Canadian Liberal party trying to shut down political parody site with crappy Trademark claims
Canadian Liberal party trying to shut down political parody site with crappy Trademark claims12/23/2003 09:33 AM I'm off to catch a plane, but before I go, I had to post this. Bullies
from the Canadian Liberal party are strong-arming a parodist who has
put up a political site to make fun of the Prime Minister. This
(should be) a national embarrassment: Canadian journalists should be
covering this story.
I woke up on Wednesday morning to a phone call from a friendly guy
named Tim, who informed me that I had one hour to take down the
website, PaulMartinTime.ca, or he would set the lawyers loose on our
asses (that's not a quote, but it's an accurate summary).
In between his friendly but businesslike remarks, he dropped a few
remarks intended to make me nervous. He said, for example, that he
"had a little trouble getting through privacy.ca, but they're no
longer supporting your cause." If we had in fact been using
privacy.ca, that would be pure power-play. It would mean that he had
intimidated (legally or otherwise) a company whose function it is to
protect the identity of people who use it into breaking its sole
mandate. As it turns out, we don't use privacy.ca; the address of Rob
Maguire, the person who registered paulmartintime.ca, is publically
available, for all with an internet connection to see.
Random Rants04/15/2005 04:40 AM US Government Bans Books: According to the security guy that patted
me down, it's not just lighters not allowed on flights, but our book
capacity has been trimmed from 4 to 2. Tivo and Netflix Need Each
Other: Why...
RSS clearly is about to go through another growth spurt. And as
with each other time its eclipsed its former self there are people who
seem to want to take control, redefine it in some bizarre and
undignified way. If people would first study the history of RSS and
see how much it has suffered from this kind of greed, perhaps they'd
back off and just be grateful that there's new technology that makes
the Internet much more useful, and leave it at that. (They usually say
their ignorance is their strength, btw.)
The name RSS is every bit as good as any other name you can
come up with, and it has the advantage that it's the name everyone
uses. Read a marketing text book. It doesn't matter what it's called,
rather that it means something in lots of brains. Trying to make a new
name stick will only make the whole thing weaker.
For example, imagine falling in love with someone. "You're the
perfect person for me," you say. "But your name doesn't communicate
who you are. Let's have a contest to come up with a new name for you."
Now, how clueless would that be?
One more thing. There's a myth going around that there is a way
to do publish-subscribe without polling. Not true. At some level,
every apparently non-polling technology is built on, you guessed it,
polling. It's all just an illusion. Computers don't really do
interrupts. At some level it's polling.
Now, should an aggregator be polling every 30 minutes? The
convention early on was no more than once an hour. But newer
aggregators either never heard of the convention or chose to ignore
it. Some aggregators let the users scan whenever they want. Please
don't do that. Once an hour is enough. Otherwise bandwidth bills won't
scale. Further, there are good ways to optimize this stuff, but that
would require cooperation among members of the community. And this
community is well-known for not cooperating with each other. We let a small
number of people fillibuster the mail lists, people who don't produce
software on either end of the RSS equation, and thereby progress
happens in very small steps if it ever happens at all.
Net-net, it's good that users are taking an interest in RSS.
But it's bad that they're behaving just as the geeks did, selfishly,
in a controlling way, fighting over things that were decided a long
time ago. Human nature comes along for the ride with us on our journey
to more effective communication tools. Can people see the big picture
and let good stuff like RSS rise to the top without pulling it down?
I've become a pessimist over the years, I think they can't help
themselves. So it's a miracle something new happened. Enjoy it while
you can.
Alton Brown.com • Rants & Raves!12/30/2003 06:11 AM Airport Security Confiscates Food TV Star's Omelet Pan! .. explains
why you shouldn't oversharpen your knife .. and wound up in handcuffs
.. Alton Brown's omlette pan .. inadvertent shopliifting .. complete
with blog .. online journal .. Good Eats
Blog
Review: WiFi Seeker / WiFi Spy07/16/2004 04:50 PM A few weeks ago I got Chrisalis Developemnt's WiFi Seeker, a convenient
keychain-sized wireless network locator. Marware's recently announced
WiFi Spy is a
rebranded version of the same device, so it should perform
identically.
To locate a wireless network simply press the button and watch the
LEDs. When the lights stop sweeping back and forth, the number that
remain lit will show the strength of the wireless signal. If the
lights continue to sweep back and forth, you're not in range for any
wireless network. Unlike other devices, the WiFi Seeker isn't fooled
by other 2.5 GHz signals like microwave ovens or cordless phones, and
it doesn't depend on 802.11 client activity to detect the access
point. It detects both 802.11b and 802.11g.
The Mac Observer: Dr. Mac: Rants & Raves - First Look: Hands-On With GarageBand
drumwaster.com/archives/000553.html track this
site | 9 links
Rants And Raves: iPod Promoters Feel The Heat
Rants And Raves: iPod Promoters Feel The Heat09/24/2004 09:25 AM Like many others, I was completely screwed by the FreeiPods.com
scheme. By Mike Amburn, Tyler Derheim, and John Borell, Wired News
(via MyAppleMenu)
Game developers' amazing rants on the state of the industry
Game developers' amazing rants on the state of the industry03/14/2005 05:29 PM Cory Doctorow:
Alice continues to take fantastic, exhaustive notes at the Game
Developers' Conference in San Francisco. She's just posted her notes
from the closing panel in which eminent game developers were invited
to rant about the state of the industry. What follows is lewd,
hilarious, and very, very true:
Greg Costikyan:
I don't know about you but I could have been a lawyer, or a carpenter.
or a sous-chef. How many of you are here because you're after a
paycheck? [One bloke raises his hand, audience laughs and crows].
Ahuh. And how many of you are here because you love games? [all hands
go up]. Right. So we're being told that everything's going to get
bigger. Paychecks. Budgets. Consoles. But is it going to get better?
I've been researching old board games and I've spotted a pattern. A
new genre: it's called One Hit Game And Its Imitators. One fishing
game appears in mid-19C and dozens follow. Games grow through
innovations. Creations of new game styles that spawn imitators and
whole new markets. The story of the past few decades is not about
graphics and processing power, but startling innovation and industry.
That's why we love games. BUT IT'S OVER NOW!
As recently as 1992: games cost 200K. Next generation games will cost
20m. Publishers are becoming increasingly risk averse. Today you
cannot get an innovative title published unless your last name is
Wright or Miyamoto. Who was at the Microsoft keynote? I don't know
about you but it made my flesh crawl. [laughter] The HD era? Bigger,
louder? Big bucks to be made! Well not by you and me of course. Those
budgets and teams ensure the death of innovation. Was your allegiance
bought at the price of a television? Then there was the Nintendo
keynote. This was the company who established the business model that
has crucified the industry today.. Iwata-san has the heart of a gamer,
and my question is what poor bastard's chest did he carve it from?
[audience falls about]
How often DO they perform human sacrifices at Nintendo?? My friends,
we are FUCKED [laughter]. We are well and truly fucked. The bar in
terms of graphics and glitz has been raised and raised until we can't
afford to do anything at all. 80 hour weeks until our jobs are all
outsourced to Asia. but it's ok because the HD era is here right? I
say, enough. The time has come for revolution! It may seem to you that
what I describe is inevitable forces of history, but no, we have free
will! EA could have chosen to focus on innovation, but they did not.
Nintendo could make development kits cheaply available to small firms,
but they prefer to rely on the creativity on one aging designer. You
have choices too: work in a massive sweatshop publisher-run studio
with thousands of others making the next racing game with the same
gameplay as Pole Position. Or you can riot in the streets of redwood
city! Choose another business model, development path, and you can
choose to remember why you love games and make sure in a generation's
time there are still games to love. You can start today.
[standing ovation]
Brad Oliver, long time Mac developer, rants about the sorry states of Mac installers and third-party Mac tools. I
have to agree on the Mac installers front. If all you're doing is
making a Cocoa app to distribute via a dmg file, you're fine. If you
need to install kernel extensions, etc, you're going to have a
miserable time of it.
dailykos.com/story/2004/8/16/19217/9455 track this
site | 3 links
Grok Description matches for Two rants on Geneva's crappy WiFi, one fictional, one non- GrokA matches for Two rants on Geneva's crappy WiFi, one fictional, one non-
Two rants on Geneva's crappy WiFi, one fictional, one non-
The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
Fark photoshopping contest: Google banners for fictitious holidays.
The Onion has posted a science fictional edition from the year 2056.
There are some fantastic gags here, a few that fall flat -- by and
large, though, this is some funny futurism ("Abraham Lincoln's DNA now
available over the counter!" "47th Amendment grants iPod Sufferage!")