Thanks to the ability of Apple's iTunes to share music collections over local networks, it is now possible to judge someone's taste in music -- or lack of it -- in a way that previously required a certain level of intimacy.

The ability to examine the music collections of co-workers, neighbors or fellow students is akin to peering into their souls: Someone who appears cool and interesting from the outside is revealed as a cultural nincompoop through the poor sap's terrible taste in music.

Communication Ethics book part for Appendix: The Technical Lawyer Cirriculum. (This is an automatically generated summary to avoid having huge posts on this page. Click through to read this post.)

Communication Ethics book part for Conclusion. (This is an automatically generated summary to avoid having huge posts on this page. Click through to read this post.)

Communication Ethics book part for Usefulness. (This is an automatically generated summary to avoid having huge posts on this page. Click through to read this post.)

Communication Ethics book part for Short Term Viability. (This is an automatically generated summary to avoid having huge posts on this page. Click through to read this post.)

Communication Ethics book part for Completeness. (This is an automatically generated summary to avoid having huge posts on this page. Click through to read this post.)

Unreason's seductive charms. "... our rationality is bounded by what our brains were constructed -- that is, evolved -- to do." [dangerousmeta!]

The article really deals with two types of unreason, "strong emotions" and "not applying logic where it should be applied". Actually, the article itself covers how to explain the latter in a reasonable framework. In reference to a pure-logic formulation of a probem vs. a socially-based formulation of an equivalent problem:

whereas the first is a matter of pure reason, disconnected from reality, the second plays into issues of truth telling and the detection of social cheaters. The human mind, Cosmides points out, is not adapted to solve rarified problems of logic, but is quite refined and powerful when it comes to dealing with matters of cheating and deception. In short, our rationality is bounded by what our brains were constructed -- that is, evolved -- to do.

EFF: FCC Adopts Hollywood "Broadcast Flag" Mandate. [Hack the Planet]

This just boggles the mind. "We all know" the government agencies are in the hip pockets of "the industry", but even by those standards this is a lopsided ruling, 110% in favor of "the content industry" with all the costs completely shifted onto the manufacturing side of the industry, and by extension everybody who needs to buy that equipment.

Canonical asymmetry; we are all actively paying for the protection of the content industry while they pay nothing. This is already asymmetrical, but how much do you want to bet that while they will produce nothing without this bit, nothing we buy at "normal consumer prices" will be able to produce this bit? A little unfair to make this accusation since it hasn't happened yet, but history is quite on my side; see DAT copy protection.

Communication Ethics book part for Robustness. (This is an automatically generated summary to avoid having huge posts on this page. Click through to read this post.)

Communication Ethics book part for Simplicity. (This is an automatically generated summary to avoid having huge posts on this page. Click through to read this post.)