Letter from 2020 Humor/Amusing9/18/2000; 9:30:41 PM 'These subversives really don't seem to understand that a few restrictions are necessary for the sake of innovation. And progress has been made. We don't have spam since most people can't afford an email license due to the expensive patent royalties. Our computer systems all have the same operating system, user interface and applications so everyone knows how to use them, and although they crash and don't work very well, we all know the limitations and can live with them. We have no piracy of intellectual property since we rent it as we want it and have no means of storing it.'I think somebody censored the message en route, though, look at the ending:'I'm crazy to have written I know. But I am so happy in the world and I remember how unhappy I used to be. I wanted to somehow pass back to you the knowledge that its all going to be okay, that the world really is getting better.'What, mandatory lobotomies?

Carnivore 3.0 - The Wrath of Olympus Surveillance and Privacy from Government9/18/2000; 8:02:45 PM 'Given the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta games and the 1972 hostage crisis in Munich, I really, really wouldn't want to be responsible for public safety at an Olympic games anywhere. So it isn't surprising that the security plans for Salt Lake in 2002 are very robust -- perhaps too robust for some people, including me. 'At the Utah games there will be a network of kiosks set up for athletes, journalists, and the public to use for e-mail and Net access.... Well, the FBI has some rather specific requirements for Olympic data security, including the ability to not only COPY e-mail from these kiosks containing passwords from users' secret list, but to actually INTERCEPT e-mail and deliver it to a security office address rather than to the intended recipient. The person manning that address is supposed to make summary decisions about what to do with the reviewed email -- maybe it gets passed along as intended by its author, maybe bounced as "undeliverable" for myriad reasons, or...'

Judge slams Palm Pilot and Web use in Las Vegas murder case Technology & Sociology9/18/2000; 7:54:04 PM Lately, it's been the legal system whacking on the internet. In this story, the internet gets a little retaliation in.(Please don't correct the gross generalities in that statement and just pretend to enjoy the irony, OK?)'A US judge has slammed jurors who revealed murder trial information on the Net and used a Palm Pilot to track press reports on the case....'But the defence asked for a retrial when it emerged that one juror had used a Palm Pilot to read press reports of the case. Other jurors had also apparently posted trial information on chatrooms....'But he was not impressed by the jurors concerned, and decided to name and shame them in his 12-page ruling. 'When some jurors "decide to reveal the sanctity of their deliberations on the Internet for the entire world to see....or bring electronic devices into the jury room that are capable of downloading extraneous material; all of their deserved commendations do not make them immune from the rules of law," he wrote. 'Bonaventure named jurors Elmer Glazener, who brought his Palm Pilot into the jury room, and Chris Sowell, who put a lot of information on the deliberation process on CourtTV.com noticeboards.'

Germany Quashes Net Tax Plan Country Watch: Germany9/18/2000; 7:35:48 PM 'Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday ruled out a tax on Internet use that critics said would stifle the development of the Web in Germany, Europe's biggest economy. 'In a speech to business leaders, Schroeder quashed a new Finance Ministry rule floated last month to tax businesses every time employees use company computers for private Internet surfing.'Which would have implied either lax enforcement, or a wide-scale motitoring of employee activity detailed enough to account for how much time isn't spent on company business. At least it was squashed.

LinkBack feature Testing... LinkBack9/17/2000; 6:56:38 PM Look at the right tool-bar. I'm uploading the results of the run of LinkBack for iRights and placed it in a message, and then include that message in the bar.If you think you might be interested in doing that for your Manila site, let me know and perhaps we can work something out.In my spare time, I'm cleaning up the system and making it smoother to add features. I'd also like to get the Top 10 feature going.Enjoy!

Mobile Phones Redefine Cities Technology & Sociology9/17/2000; 6:46:05 PM Missed this from Sept. 6...'[Anthony Townsend, an associate research scientist at New York University's Taub Urban Research Center] said much of the behavior and structure of the city at an aggregate level is based upon individual behavior. '"So the introduction of this cute little device (mobile phones) would slip under the radar of urbanists, even though it fundamentally changes the way individuals interact -- which consequently alters the behavior of the entire system," he said. 'Townsend believes that the architecture and urban design of an information society ought to revel in data, information, and experience.'About the only thing I'd disagree with is the implicit assumption I think I see in the article that the world of cell-phones and the world of the internet and the PC are somehow different. The gains will multiply together, because they aren't really seperate.

JumpTV Aims To Be Next iCraveTV - Without Lawsuits Television & Movies9/17/2000; 6:42:04 PM 'Another Canadian company is planning to go where controversial Webcaster iCraveTV.com has gone before. But Montreal- based JumpTV.com figures it can retransmit off-the-air television signals via the Internet without being crushed by copyright lawsuits from the movie and broadcasting industries. 'Nearly 10 months after iCraveTV first announced plans to pipe television broadcasting through its Web site the way cable companies retransmit programming via their private networks, JumpTV is gearing up for a similar business, taking advantage of Internet- friendly broadcasting regulations in Canada.'The critical difference is that JumpTV.com is getting the applicable permissions. That makes all the difference.

LinkBack Online LinkBack9/16/2000; 1:20:24 PM Murphy willing, LinkBack is back online and should stay there for the forseeable future.It's running within Radio Userland now, so I can run it at home without violating any Frontier licensing. (Cool!)The system has been reset and will take some time to flush out the 'old' links.

Olympic Coverage Personal Notes9/16/2000; 12:04:44 PM On a topic utterly unrelated to iRights...If you enjoy watching the Olympics and live in the US you likely detest what passes for Olympic coverage around here, which is usually about 50% sports, and 50% "While we own your eyes, we'd like you to [watch the premiere of this new show, watch this unutterably annoying and sappy "human interest" story, forget that anybody but the US is competing]. If you live in the Northern US, try to find out if you can get the Canadian Broadcasting Channel... I watched it yesterday, and instead of seeing NBC run a tease about a swimmer named Thorpe coming on 'tommorow' (Hype! Hype! Hype!), I watch a guy named Thorpe swim. I am seriously wondering if the CBC will be a day ahead for the entire games or not...Definately check it out if you want to see the Olympics and not an NBC produced pageant vaguely related to the Olympics.

Film evidence challenges BT's claim to hypertext patent Patents9/16/2000; 11:56:06 AM 'BT's tight-fisted grasp on the patent for hyperlinks could be about to slacken following an intriguing posting on Nerd site, Slashdot.'Apparently, on December 9, 1968, Douglas C Engelbart and 17 researchers at the Augmentation Research Center, Stanford Research Institute, in Menlo Park, California presented a 90-minute live public demo in which hypertext was wheeled out for all to see.'Real Player video and a link to the Slashdot discussion is at the site.