Time Running Out on Kid Email
Misc.
5/2/2000; 11:28:02 PM Feb 29, 2000: We hear about a lot of less-then-wonderful things being done "in the name of the children!", but this one's pretty good, actually. E-mail can get a child in over their head pretty quickly; my sister recently got in over her head, and she's 18! Still, while the ideas good, the government really should stop passing laws that they don't already know how to enforce; odds are, if they can't figure out how to enforce it today, they aren't going to figure it out anytime soon.

Observations on Opinions on the Amazon Patent Personal Commentary5/2/2000; 11:27:11 PM Feb 28, 2000: As I cruised the weblogs for the opinions of people regarding the Amazon patent, I thought I noticed a correlation between the person being in the computer field in a more-or-less professional manner, and thinking the Amazon patent is bad. It seemed to me that those who worked in the computer industry were likely to think the patent is wrong (and the more they worked, the stronger the dislike), while those who worked in other industries tended to think there was nothing wrong with it.Unfortunately, my sample is too small to say anything, and I am uncomfortable pointing out examples, as that might be percieved as an attack ('Your opinion on the Amazon patent is wrong because you are ignorant of the software industry' is a rather unpolite tack to take.). So, take that for what it's worth I supposed.There will be counterexamples, of course, that's the nature of statistics. I'm wondering if there's a trend. I hope some larger weblogs pick up the survey and help people participate without seeing this analysis first.

The Amazon One-Click Patent Fracas
Patents
5/2/2000; 11:19:31 PM I'll just let the original page I had for this on Feb 27, 2000 stand. It says it all and it would just clutter things up to try to include it all here.

ADV: Spam Spam & E-Mail5/2/2000; 11:16:30 PM Feb 23, 2000: I can't believe it; I just recieved my first spam marked ADV:, in accordence with the new Colorado law. Wow.Of course, it was addressed "Dear Golf Club Express Member" or some such... and I don't do golf, and I've never told anything that I do. *sigh*

Microsoft's ActiveX Too Active? Misc.5/2/2000; 11:14:29 PM Feb 23, 2000: Microsoft says it will fix its ActiveX installation program after a Spanish Web developer discovered that it modifies users' computers without asking for their permission."Why do so many companies think that as soon as you run their installation program, they can do anything they want to your computer? Why does Real Player install 7 icons and take over the treatment of 10-15 file types, without ever asking? Does this violate any concievable rights we may have?

Michigan town votes down library Net filtering
Censorship
5/2/2000; 11:13:20 PM Feb 23, 2000: "Unofficial results showed that residents here voted 4,379 to 3,626 against the proposal, which would have cut off funding to the library unless the filters were installed."

Wow, cool! I have to admit I fully expected it to pass with flying colors. The town in question is probably the most conservative city in Michigan, providing balance to our Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan and everything liberal.

News, Views and a Silicon Valley Diary
Privacy from Companies
5/2/2000; 11:10:06 PM Feb 23, 2000: "I've been making it a point lately to test the privacy features of Web sites and other kinds of interactions I have with businesses. I do this both because I want to guard my own privacy, and to collect data for this journal.

"The latest news is, I'm not surprised to say, the usual dismal stuff."

Grim Reaper's Age Guesser Humor/Amusing5/2/2000; 11:08:51 PM Feb 23, 2000: via array, via pith and vinegar, via Bradlands.Actually, I'm not terribly impressed. If you examine the weights it gives, then it draws the vast majority of the information from the two tell-tale questions. If I had been less honest about my facial complexion, it would have been horribly, horribly wrong. Derive what you can from that statement. OK, OK, I admit it, I just wanted a "via" chain of 3. Anyone care to go further?

More Thoughts on ETP as Community Internet/Weblog Culture5/2/2000; 11:07:05 PM Feb 22, 2000: On Deciding... Better: "And there's respect and politeness here. I don't know how we get along without alcohol as social lubricant."I'll take a shot at that. Weblog community-links along which negative energy flows tend to break themselves. Rather then leaving two antagonists in a more conventional community, neither of whom will leave and neither of whom will back down, the link between the two will simply sever... possibly with a great deal of noise and smoke, but sever it will. *Shazam*, no more contact, yet the meta-community remains more-or-less intact, and is even better off for having less negative energy flowing through it. Weblog community-links along which positive energy flows will tend to reinforce themselves; we see this in the list of links to other weblogs which seem almost redundent because the 'blogger links to them so often anyhow. It's not redundency, it's a sign of the strength of the bond between the two community-units.This implies that to be fair I need to create my own list of blogs-I-like. I'll get to that sometime, I guess.This might explain the difficulty in getting a decent discussion going in these communities; those likely to post are likely to already have their own weblog, and do it there instead.Expect me to mumble some more about communities in the future. I like what I see here; a bunch of people, communicating, a system that encourages polite behavior (or you are ignored, even more so then on the Usenet). New dynamics at work! Not totally new, of course, but new nevertheless. I like this. I don't just want iRights to explore the wrong ways of doing business, like Boundary Breakers, I want to explore the right ways too, which is hard to do when you just read the news .I used to think weblogs were over-rated, even avoided the term, because I agree with those who say that this is not a fundamentally new type of web site, and they are nothing to get excited about. The community that may form from a large number of people using them, however, may just be something to get excited about.