Resurrecting a Dying Art Internet/Weblog Culture5/2/2000; 10:57:47 PM Feb 22, 2000: "In fact, the chaos of the bulletin board and the chat room can have a profoundly negative effect upon the overall quality of conversation, a new study concludes. But when the talk moves into a less freewheeling environment, the level of the debate seems to improve. . . Unlike the dissonant interaction of public bulletin boards and chats, Reality Check tried to create online spaces where the participants have a sense of ownership and belonging."Sound familiar? This describes the ETP community to a T. We each have our own space. We are not anonymous. Quality runs high among those who actually try. If you find ETP an interesting community effort, you should read that whole article; it has a lot that is relevent. ETP is a distributed community, and that may be something fairly new. "Distributed community"... now there's a phrase that needs explaining.

Dueling Over Digital Music Rights
Music & MP3
5/2/2000; 10:56:43 PM Feb. 22, 2000: "With so many applicable laws -- and ambiguities in those laws -- music fans are in a precarious position when they venture into the Net's music scene." Ambiguities always work in favor of those with the $$$.

John Gilmore on American free speech
Free Speech
5/2/2000; 10:55:48 PM Feb. 22, 2000: "The rest of the world does NOT want American ideas of free speech shoved down their throats." The converse is true, too; America does not want the rest of the world's idea of free speech stuffed down our throats.

The problem is that in a globally integrated environment, there aren't room for a couple thousand rulesets like we have now; if there's room for two, it will come as a surprise to many people. This may come down to a contest on who can 'stuff' harder, the US, Europe, China, who knows?

Privacy on the Internet Privacy from Companies5/2/2000; 10:54:15 PM Feb 22, 2000: "No one tracks a shopper as he visits various stores in a mall or keeps notes on what products he looks at. But in cyberspace, that shopper's behavior -- which Web sites he visits, and which ads he clicks on -- can all be instantly recorded and compiled, albeit through computer-based identifiers rather than by name."You know, I've heard that a lot. But is it really true that no one tracks a shopper in a mall? While window shopping can be tracked on the Internet while your real-life shopping can't, that's about the only difference for a lot of people. If you use a credit card, you can be tracked on what you actually purchase quite easily (and that information is more valuable then what you simply look at, if you think about it). This particular aspect of privacy is one you gave up when you started using your credit card. The biggest difference is that on the Internet, you have no choice... you can't get out of the tracking.Point? Privacy violations aren't new to the Internet, and any eventual policy should really take that into account, which means that any eventual Internet decisions may well have repercussions in the real world.

The Risks Digest Volume 20: Issue 81
Privacy from Companies
5/2/2000; 10:50:12 PM Feb 21, 2000: The attorney general of Michigan has filed a "notice of intended action" against DoubleClick, charging the Web advertising firm with "failing to disclose to Internet users that DoubleClick is systematically implanting electronic 'cookies,' or electronic surveillance files, on hard drives of users' computers without their knowledge or consent." Hey, that's my state! Go Michigan!

Manila Express(tm) for Netscape Fun Stuff!5/2/2000; 10:48:40 PM I have created an interface to Manila Express(tm) for Netscape, but it is not quite as easy to set up. However, once set up, it is just as easy to use.Unfortunately, this requires you to have access to some sort of non-EditThisPage web space at this time... Javascript can't open a file on your hard drive. Normally, this is good, but in this case, it means you can't just dump the form on the hard drive and be done with it.The other major difference is that you don't get the IE5-only HTML menus, but other then that, it works just like the IE5 Manila Express(tm).

Colo. Lawmakers OK Internet Ad Bill
Spam & E-Mail
5/2/2000; 10:46:04 PM Feb 17, 2000: "Internet spammers would have to slap a crystal-clear "advertisement" label on all electronic junk mail and provide an easy way for consumers to scratch their names from mailing lists under a bill passed Thursday by a state House committee."

Copy protection proposed for digital displays
Misc.
5/2/2000; 10:43:14 PM Feb 18, 2000: "The High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protection (HDCP) approach encrypts each pixel as it moves from a personal computer or set-top box to digital displays, such as digital flat panels and high-definition televisions." OK, but what benefit does this offer to the consumer? None? Scrap it.

Next generation iCraveTV? Humor/Amusing5/2/2000; 10:41:36 PM Feb 17, 2000: This is a great article about Garner Bornstein's and Andy Nulman's spoof of ICraveTV, iCraveiCraveTV.com.A press release on the spoof site declares "iCraveTV is the first generation of Internet parasites; we're the next generation. As an upstart Internet company, we are seeking the maximum content value with the lowest possible levels of investment and effort. What better way than to just swipe someone else's signal?" I love it.