It used to be that “street memes” were hard to track, but that has changed with the Internet. What is hot in the areas of spray paint, zines, tee-shirts and fringe culture greatly interest me (almost as much as shock memes in and of themselves)…so what about print-on-demand (POD) or Just in Time (JIT) inventory from grass roots designers? What can we infer or learn if anything?

Do t-shirt sales trends reflect the rise and fall of candidate popularity?
Do current events crank up sales? What does it say about their base?

The Cafepress graph offers a snapshot of weekly candidate product sales so you can do your own analysis…

Cafepress “Election Meter” charts sales across their millions of user created content products.

CafePress declares Barack Obama has won the Democratic T-Shirt Primary with 49% of cumulative sales, while Hillary finished at 18%. Look at the Meter since November, and you’ll see the T-Shirt Primary was truly an indicator of voter preference!

According to CafePress Obama took it away with a commanding lead. Let’s us take a look closer at the number of designs and total number of products. This should give us a better feel…from my snapshot (June 19, 2008) Obama has a commanding lead in overall products and a good edge in terms of designs.

Barack Obama: 32,800 designs on 1,140,000 products
Hillary Clinton: 21,000 designs on 650,000 products
John McCain: 8,250 designs on 291,000 products
Ron Paul: 6,110 designs on 120,000 products

How about the inverse? Anti-candidate products…

Anti-Barack Obama: 6,480 designs on 215,000 products
Anti-Hillary Clinton: 4,130 designs on 111,000 products
Anti-John McCain: 3,080 designs on 85,400 products

I predict that in the future POD and JIT systems will be contested areas and political pundits will wake up to analyzing the “on demand” spread of ideas and candidates through these systems and various products.

I can almost hear some silly analyst on CNN now…

“Candidate X has a slight edge over Candidate Y in mouse pads, but a blazing lead in coffee mugs and golf balls in terms of conversion and number of products.”

“What does this mean?”

“Well it is hard to say, but the golf balls implies a more affluent voter base than Candidate Y”.

“How about the area of tattoos?”

“Anti-candidate tattoos or pro-candidate? Very important we take this into account.”

 

Anti Barack Obama Anti Hillary Clinton Anti John McCain Barack Obama Cafepress Elections Hillary Clinton JIT John McCain meme engineering memes memetic analysis POD street memes t shirt sales

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Caught this from Kellie Stevens, Zango is cutting almost 70 jobs and “transforming” itself. I think paperghost and my friends will need to wait on the champagne…the company may be limping, but it isn’t quite dead…read on.

 

Zango, the controversial online advertising company whose business tactics have been consistently attacked by privacy experts, has laid off 68 employees.

The cutbacks — announced internally Monday — come as the Bellevue provider of pop-up ads attempts to transform into a casual games distributor. The layoffs also come a month after Zango was named one of the best companies to work for in the state by Washington CEO magazine.

Zango had this to say:

“Zango’s top priority for 2008 has been the planning, development and release of Platrium, a unique casual gaming experience launched in beta last month. During this time, it has become clear that this new product is the future of the company and, as a result, Zango is narrowing its focus. This significant shift for the company will impact 68 jobs across the company’s six offices in four countries … . While this was an incredibly difficult business decision which impacts Zango’s amazing base of employees, the company is very excited about its future and new direction with Platrium.”

Platrium? Platrium sounds like some sort of laxative drug or a new form of anti-psychotic…

Do you feel like crap? Constipated? Talk to your doctor about Platrium! Guaranteed to work overnight.

Sources said that two executives also departed, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development York Baur and Chief Technology Officer Ken Smith. Smith, who co-founded the company in 1999, is the brother of Chief Executive Keith Smith. A Zango spokesman declined to comment on the departures.

I don’t think there is much they can say. You came, you saw, and you were torn too bits.

Zango, formerly 180solutions, has been criticized over the years for installing its ad-serving software without computer users’ knowledge and making the uninstall process difficult to navigate. In 2006, the company settled a dispute with the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to pay a $3 million fine.

Like the artist formerly known as Prince. I am proud I have been one of those zealots (among others) who have criticized them over the years.

So long and thanks for all the fish. I doubt the FTC will do much about Platrium, but it does sound like a drug so maybe the FDA might get involved. This is proof positive that people really don’t like garbage on their computer. No matter what kind of “value proposition” you think you have. I enjoyed the steel cage matches.

Pwnage Value +50 
PhailScale Score: 7

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Orionsarm has a nice list of top science fiction pieces that utilize memetic engineering or memetic manipulation…I have picked out my favorites from both a science fiction quality standpoint and from a purely memetic one. My personal favorite on this short list is Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card…here are a few others on a deeper level.

“Brave New World”, by Aldous Huxley. Shows memetic manipulation through distraction, subliminals, language, information control, and pleasure, and contains elements that are very easy to recognize in all Information Age cultures.

“1984″, by George Orwell. Demonstrates memetic manipulation through language, information control, and fear. Elements are easy to recognize in 20th & 21st century Information Age cultures.

“The Space Merchants” by Frederic Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth. Memetic manipulation through advertising methods and other information management. Elements are easy to recognize in commercial societies of the Information Age. This book provides good insight into probable NoCoZo cultures in OA.

Other good science fiction classics that utilize memetic engineering to some degree:

“Fahrenheit 451″ Ray Bradbury. This novel illustrates memetic control by destruction of information, distraction, and the use of mass media.

“Illuminatus” trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. Conflicting and confusing secret organizations manipulate governments, populations, and individuals of for the purpose of .

“The Book of the New Sun” by Gene Wolfe. Memetic control of a population (the Ascians) through language. A fascinating and ultimate case. Also, memetic manipulation of human polities by aliens who are acting on behalf of beings comparable to OA’s Archai.

“Enders Game” by Orson Scott Card. Memetics in training super-intelligent children to be future generals.

“Dune” by Frank Herbert. An interstellar society (the Bene Gesserit) provides planetside cultures with myths and legends for their own purposes.

The “Foundation” series by Isaac Asimov. Presumes a limited ability to make memetic predictions and thereby interfere to produce desired results. (Hari Seldon)

Short Story

“Adrift on the Policy Level” by Chandler Davis. Short story. It presumes a world in which Darwinian competition among memes governs corporate/government policy. Humor.

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Boards and Such

I stated yesterday that I had accepted an advisory board position with the Association of Virtual Words. I must be a glutton for punishment because I have accepted a (FAB) advisory position with the fledgling Performance Marketing Alliance. Here are some of my nascent thoughts more reading has been collected by Lisa at Revenue Today.

Spontaneous Social Persuasion

On a related note here is the interesting flip side to a Twitter experience I had. Read Chris Warren’s Spontaneous Social Persuasion. Please do not confuse with spontaneous combustion.

Parting shot…Another Shift Happens Video…

 

advisory board affiliate marketing assocation of virtual worlds blair warren performance marketing alliance PFA revenue today social persuasion wayne porter

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Some quick bullets, and a slide show, from Cory Ondrejka , so this post has *some* substance. I agree that Second Life has done quite a bit to further the advancement of Virtual Worlds. As technology advances (Moore’s Law anyone?) I imagine we are going to see innovation really accelerate.

Fact: I have accepted an invitation to join the Association of Virtual Worlds’ Advisory Board along with Chadrick Baker, Lori Bell, Bruno Cerboni, Dr. Sara de Freitas, Francesco D’Orazio, Michael Drew, Rahul Dutta, Cynthia Freese, Sasha Frieze, Dr. Hanan Gazit, Darius Lahoutifard, Dr. Chang Liu, Andrew Peters, Liz Ryan, Colin Trethewey, David Wisotzky and Zafka Zang. Quite a crew of very smart people and future thinkers…I am honored and hope I can make a solid contribution. Release is slated for tomorrow…

Rumor: A preview of CISCO’s telepresence application was described to me as “jaw dropping”. Hope to learn more…source- trusted.

As I said earlier about virtual world growth.

I partially disagree with the “unique marketing opportunity” as that is only part of the equasion. As someone who spends quite a bit of time studying “virtual worlds” I think the bigger bets are on collaboration, eroding work place silos, training, fast prototyping and business interactions. Bank on it- other countries are.

Here is the slide show from Cory…lengthy yet interesting if you look at virtual worlds in context to other technological growth…keep in mind that Spore is coming down the pipe…

 

| View 

 

2l life annenberg Cisco cory ondrejka CSCO metaverse metaverse history Second Life second story SecondLife usc virtual worlds

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I will make this very quick since most of it speaks for itself. I decided to check my MySpace account after about a year or so I guess. I am not sure how much time has elapsed, it is like a continual nightmare, but I thought I would report the highlights…

Latest Friend Requets

A Marketing Genius who believes in The Lord Jesus! wants to be your friend!

A HUMBLE Social Networking CEO wants to be your friend!

Tom Reassures Me MySpace is Free (heh. like ICQ)

My lawyers tell me that I need to let every MySpace user know that MySpace’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy have been updated. Feel free to take a look at them:

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Don’t worry everyone received this message from me, and this doesn’t mean we are charging. MySpace is still free!

Whew. Close call Tom, for a moment I thought MySpace might cost people something which is not a bad idea. For one it would generate revenue and it would also be a barrier to entry! It would save me time every year or so that I check my account. If it did cost I would not have to delete dozens of these warnings and I do mean dozens…

Profile Has been Deleted

The profile you received this message from has been deleted. Either this user deleted their own profile or MySpace deleted it for spamming and/or content violations.

To remove this message click the delete button below.

Thank you.

P.S. If you’re seeing a lot of old messages in your inbox like this, it’s because someone you know who has written you messages has been deleted. If the messages are new, it’s probably a spammer that MySpace caught in the act.

Don’t worry though….Tom calms my worst fears. The thought that my friends, even my family, have been deleted out of existence is a false alarm.

My Friends Have Not Been Deleted

your friends have not been deleted!

Just wanted to update everyone on this issue. Last Friday we ran some database jobs to fix an inaccuracy in the way we were counting the number of friends each user has. WE DID NOT DELETE YOUR FRIENDS! We simply fixed the number that shows on your profile. You can read more about it in my blog! I know people are very worried they lost friends, but you did not - your friend count is just closer to being accurate. We’re only about halfway through, so your count will still decline until it’s completely finished.

The horror.

Please Intervene for My Sister

Unfortunately my sister is still there. She is on MySpace and I can’t find a tactic or strategy to get her off of the broken CSS, chain letters, scammers and spammers.

Bright Note- Self-Deprecation Works

On the flip side I can report that calling myself a “retard” in Twitter and linking to a blog post drives visitors. This should make my marketing and social media crowd readers happy. *thanks*

I am not sure what all of this means. I am trying not to think about the implications and what it says about the influencer crowd I hang with on Twitter…I do hope no one tells all the “deleted people” about micro-chunking and nano-blogging formats. I am running out of places to hide…

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I hate to regurgitate stuff, but I will, especially when I think it is not completely accurate.

From StrategyAnalytics.com

Virtual Worlds Projected to Mushroom to Nearly One Billion Users
$8 Billion Market Value Projected for User Services

Analytics today released its forecast of virtual world adoption, which shows that over the next ten years some 22 percent of global broadband users will have registered for one or more virtual worlds resulting in a market approaching one billion registrants and an eight billion dollar services opportunity. The study, “Market Forecasts for Virtual World Experiences,” projects a diversified global market with services targeted at children, teens and adults across a wide range of applications…

“Despite a multitude of challenges, virtual worlds present a unique marketing opportunity to target a highly sought demographic, and virtual worlds should be part of a company’s marketing portfolio,” according to Harvey Cohen, President of Strategy Analytics

I partially disagree with the “unique marketing opportunity” as that is only part of the equasion. As someone who spends quite a bit of time studying “virtual worlds” I think the bigger bets are on collaboration, eroding work place silos, training, fast prototyping and business interactions. Bank on it- other countries are.

To put it bluntly…in 2008 they are already building Teddy Bears that can interface with Twitter. The day will come (probably with the teraflop) when Virtual Worlds or 3D browsing simply dust away the web as you know it. Virtual worlds should be a part of your WORKSPACE portfolio- then worry about marketing.

A Conversation From the Future?

What was HTTP dad? Is it it an illness?

It was before your time son.

Is this about the people who thought you were a bit daft for talking about Virtual Worlds in 2006?

You got it son. Might have been the same ones that called me a retard back in 1996 when I tried to explain to them how important Internet marketing and presence would be.

Sure Dad. Can we get back and go digital fishing on our pixelated yacht?

You got it son. I love this Minority Report Interface…

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How “Social Media” Can Work

I have blogged quite extensively on Twitter since January of 2007. I have tried to reduce a “social media interaction” using Twitter down to basic essentials and simple analysis. This is how “one-to-one” communication can work with the Net helping those with shared interests, no matter how strange- connect.

Process:

I visit Blair Warren’s about page which sports diverse interests like mythology,  marketing and cult leaders. This mix is too good not to at least skim. Diversity and niche attract my interest.

 

 His odd collection of interests and succinct posts, lined with his own brand of “crooked wisdom”, persuade me to add his Feed to my Reader.

 

We started Tweeting on the strangeness of Aleister Crowley- which is hardly normal marketing banter, but as he points out to me- reading about Crowley is far more entertaining than any of the craziness the guy ever wrote. Our interest in a very odd subset of information is shared.

 

I send Blair a direct tweet on an idea to monetize his work based on his strengths and my own skill sets.

 

Blair direct tweets back his telephone number- call when you are able. I use Skype (VOIP) to dial his number.

 

We end up talking for two hours on a myriad of subjects- exchanging ideas and insights and we both agree we are more interested in “who” reads what we write as opposed to “how many”. I believe fair value was exchanged on both of our sides as we shared “insights”. It certainly was useful for me and had real world “worth”. ROI.

Analysis:

If Blair had not had a blog, and had not been using Twitter (ditto for me) we would have never met, nor exchanged insights- which are critical and hard to come by. The opportunity to pick up the phone or Skype and create a more meaningful interaction simply could not have happened. Of course Blair did take the initiative and I am not sure what stimulated this. His “about me” page and tight quips helped me qualify why I might want to read further and spend my time- which is valuable. In this case our shared eclectic interests in persuasion, among other things, helped form a bridge.

Conclusion:

While I primarily blog on this site for my own interests (have fun) and “to think out loud” I really need to work on reducing my thoughts and words into more manageable chunks- even if I am pranking someone say- Scoble.

I don’t deliberately try to write in such a sprawling fashion, or talk over anyone’s head. It is a matter of Appalachian dialect and flat-out poor writing habits combined with an avid reader’s vocabulary. I tend to write exactly how I talk. This tells me my speaking can be greatly improved too. Probably by shutting up a bit more or soliciting more feedback.

I also tend to write “stream-of-consciousness style” and jump from A to Z all the while assuming the reader is well versed in security or e-commerce or virtual worlds, or whatever area I am exploring. I tend to explore wide and diverse areas and I do it fast. Just like I read.

That doesn’t mean I have to write the same ”echo-chamber” lists or follow the identical formulaic formats that I see and get bored with around the web. I should make use of list formats and short-form paragraphs, with careful work on reduction, before hitting “publish”. This will help me and assist readers, who might also be potential collaborators, in making a decision on whether to “sign on for something more”.

That simple. Blog, RSS, Micro-blog exchanges, VOIP, E-mails- Insight.

Next post I may tackle aesthetics, but for now I will settle for the ROI on Twitter & Blogs.

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According to an e-mail from the Association of Virtual Worlds they have nearly completed construction on their own virtual headquarters and, surprise, this HQ is not in Second Life although many of the members have groups or sub-HQs in the Second Life metaverse. I talked about them earlier this year and I am getting more involved- more on that to come.

Dave Elchoness, Executive Director, has been working closely over the past few months with Rahul Dutta, CEO of Trimensions Metaverse Development, the company designing the new environment, and Darius Lahoutifard, CEO of ALTADYN, the company behind 3DXplorer, browser based platform on which the headquarters is built.

The progress report is that the project is in its final phases the virtual headquarters just about ready for the 2,000 plus members. Exciting indeed…

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GoodReads.com is taking off as a social reading and recommendation platform.

This seems like a good opportunity to remind the thinkers and Hive Minds at QuizAxeHatRack they might want to check into the novel, Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson (Life isn’t all Snowcrash). Not only will the Hive get exposed to neat topics like Van Eck phreaking but a really neat chapter going on about RIST.

“RIST is a bit-pattern designator is a random series of bits used to uniquely identify a RIST. For example, the organism traditionally designed as Earth (Terra, Gaia)has been assigned the designator 0577. This Web site is maintained by 11A4 which is a hive mind. RIST 11A4 assigns bit-pattern designators with a pseudo-random number generator. This departs from the practice used by that so-disant ”hive mind” known to itself as the East Bay Area Hive Mind Project but designated (in the system of RIST 11A4) as RIST E772. This ”hive mind” resulted from the division of ”Hive Mind One” (designated in the system of RIST 11A4 as RIST 4032) into several smaller ”hive minds” (the East Bay Area Hive Mind Project, the San Francisco Hive Mind, Hive Mind 1A, the Reorganized San Francisco Hive Mind, and the Universal Hive Mind) as the result of irreconcilable contradiction between several different semantic memes that competed for mind-share. One of these semantic memes asserted that bit-pattern designators should be assigned in numerical order, so that (for example) Hive Mind One would be designated RIST 0001 and so on. Another meme asserted that numbers should be organized in order of importance, so that (for example) the RIST conventionally known as the planet Earth would be RIST 0001. Another semantic meme agreed with this one but disagreed as to whether the counting should begin with 0000 or 0001.Within both the 0000 and 0001 camps, there was disagreement about what RIST should be assigned the first number : some asserted that Earth was the first and most important RIST, others that some larger system (the solar system, the Universe, God) was in some sense more inclusive and fundamental.

A hive mind is a social organization of RISTs that are capable of processing semantic memes (”thinking”). These could be either carbon-based or silicon-based. RISTs who enter a hive mind surrender their independent identities (which are mere illusions anyway). For purposes of convenience, the constituents of the hive mind are assigned bit-pattern designators. The genetic part of the memomes share 99% of it’s contents with the data set produced by the Human Genome Project. This should not be construed as endorsing the concept of of speciation (i.e., that the continuum of carbon-based life forms can or should be arbitrarily partitioned into paradigmatic species) in general, or the theory that there is a species called ”homo spaiens” in particular. Also, The semantic part of the memomes are still unavoidably contaminated with many primitive viral memes, but these are being gradually and steadily supplanted by new semantic memes generated ab initiao by rational processes. ”

Good read…

bit patterns carbon life codes Cryptonomicon hive mind humanity memomes semantic memes silicon life Van Eck Phreaking viral memes

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I go on record that while I think the right to bare arms is important, I would gladly give up that right as there are about fifteen other rights I would rather have. No bother. I had so much fun making my first set of target videos, inspired by Sam Harrelson’s Guns and Cookies, that I decided to grow an Isaac Asimov-like set of chops (or Wolverine if you are a younger person and so inclined) and give the .32, .357, and .44 magnum a go out in the homestead. (I have since shaved BTW.)

No worries… People shoot guns out in the hills all the time. The key element is they do not shoot people. That is not only rude, it is also illegal. In this video you will make note that the final four shots from the .44 are “loaded”. It nearly took my hand off.

And yes I already know “the spider” found out and reported in a magazine months ago that I got shot. For the record it was in the thigh…there are some other inaccuracies in that story, but for the sake of the story I will let it be. Thanks to Steve Rosenbaum and Jim Kukral for inspiring me to explore video despite not being comfortable with the medium. I am sure I will improve over time.

See the Fun with Gun and the Catch 44 Videos…

 

.32 .357 magnum .44 magnum gun videos guns sam harrelson shooting target practice wayne porter wayneporter.com YouTube

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Second Life Land Prices Down 30%

Mappa Novus reports that average land prices have declined by 30% over the past 30 days, from 16.3 L$/m² to 12.5 L$/m² . 

“Similar drops have been noticed in the past and have represented a good potential buying opportunity with periodic upswings allowing a sell off for profit.  the amount of this decline is more significant than past trends however, which may represent a tighter economy.”

I have not experienced a drop off in spending based on analysis from our MicroPepper product (an e-commerce system designed to vend), people still seem to be spending on a wide variety of niche products- hopefully I can put out some of our own analytics soon. In addition I have not noted any land bot activity which is unusual, but I have not tested enough to validate this.

It is noteworthy that void sims, also called open spaces, are now prime and ready on the market starting at $250.00 up front to $75 a month.

An existing region can also be converted into four Openspaces, although you cannot convert your last remaining region; you must own a private region to be able to own an Openspace. They are provided for light use only, not for building, living in, renting as homes or use for events. As a stretch of open water for boating or a scenic wooded area work well, and places like Caledon, have supplemented their builds with void simsm. 

*Each of the four is limited to only 3750 prims.

 

low prim sims Openspace Openspace sims Second Life hosting second life land second life land prices void sims

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I have been covering the Phorm “situation” over the last couple of weeks, even going so far as to ask them a few questions after they asked me to change an assertion (which I did not, although I did add an addendum). Alexander Hanff, a noted IT specialist, claimed that the 2006 BT-Phorm trials had contravened the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and the Data Protection Act. In the U.K. they have laws like this. In America we have the Patriot Act. *cough*

From ZDNetUK (found via Hermes Project Blog)

The Information Commissioner’s Office has ruled out an investigation of BT or Phorm, despite calls from academics for the telecommunications giant to be punished over trials of controversial ad-serving technology in 2006.

Following the publication of a leaked document detailing a trial of the technology by Phorm and BT, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) told ZDNet.co.uk on Monday that the information in the leaked document would not cause it to take any punitive action against the companies.

“The ICO seeks to resolve issues informally,” said an ICO spokesperson. “We didn’t have the internal [leaked] document, but Phorm and BT did present us with information [after the trial]. We’ve worked with BT and Phorm and we are not going to take any punitive action at this stage.”

 

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I have been following the world of micro-biology, nanotechnology, genetics, and anti-aging for quite some time. Recently, after being discovered a decade ago Standford researchers found some two new key proteins in regards to telemerase.

Telomers sit at each end of a chromosome, the elongated X-shaped thing that contains our DNA.  After cells divide a little chunk of the telomer disappears, aging the cells.  Old cells off-themselves so they don’t pass on harmful mutations.

Telemerase is an enzyme that repairs damaged telomeres.  Cancer cells have telemerase, and normal cells don’t (it vanishes shortly after birth) which is why cancer cells live forever.  A drug that blocks telemerase should help block cancer, or a drug that induces telemerase could extend life.

So what did Stanford scientists do?  “With gene in hand” and “many technical advances” the scientists “chopped the massive telomerase complex into tiny protein pieces,” put them through a “sensative device that detected the pieces” and found two proteins in telomerase.  They disabled one protein using “genetic trickery” in petri dish cells and found out which gene produced the protein or proteins.

The Importance of Proteins

This is a big deal. It not only means you could, in theory, tell cancerous cells to “die”, but you could essentially tell cells to stop division e.g. eternal life. As an aside and for the curious the genetadox story in Second Life  a.ka.. Primula Rasa: Chevalier versus Prototyper campaign in Second Life was partly inspired by telemerase research.

“In essence, they seek to discover clues as to “how” and “why” they have advanced to such a high stage in evolution, while so many others remain nothing more than what some would consider primitives…or animals at best. A ruling was put forth by the Council of the Galactic Consortium of Lemnus in order to end the rivalry that, based on Seldone Entropical Theory, could cause serious unrest and economic upheaval.

This task, upon completion, would determine which of the two schools of thought would be next in line to lead all advanced life of the known metaverse and access to the rare and precious Genetadox vaccine. The Consortium power structure, by law, must change hands once a millennium. These laws were enacted through the passing of the Genetic Longevity Caste Act due to the much longer life spans granted after genome mapping was completed and stem cell mining was legalized leading to the creation of Genetadox. Also, perhaps, in the process, solve one of the greatest mysteries of all time.”

Enter Molecule CGK733

Korean researchers have found a complex thiourea derivative that can extend the lifetime of mammalian cells and reverse cellular aging.

Colleagues at Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science & Technology report that CGK733 can extend the lifetime of cultured cells by approximately 20 divisions, or roughly 25%.

A cell’s aging is often called ”senescence,” a term that describes the physical and biochemical signs of a cell’s deterioration toward death. These includes signals for the cessation of cell division, release of chemicals from the cell informing others of its impending doom, and an increase in the girth of the cell.

CGK733 is the first small molecule that can reverse aspects of cell senescence. Genetic techniques have been used to do so in the past. However, CGK733 unique is that its antiaging properties are reversible: When CGK733 is removed, cells return to normal aging and death.

That is a big deal. Futurists know we are about to enter into an era the equivalent of a technological blitzkrieg. Quantum computers will usher in this change. Who gets the antidote? Who gets the innoculation? That is part of the story that Primula Rasa was exploring- science versus the mystics and of course, those that choose neither side.

Molecules Versus Genetics

Cellular senescence researcher Judith Campisi of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says CGK733 will be a good lab tool for biologists. “CGK733 is an example of what many scientists hope will be a trend: the identification of small molecules to mimic more cumbersome genetic interventions to regulate cellular behavior.”

Eternal life may be right around the corner. But I have a feeling the war fought to obtain it will kill alot more than it will save. The best bet is to find the cure, encode it into popular music and art and hope humankind evolves a bit more.

anti aging CGK733 future science genetics molecules nanotechnology proteins research Science telemerase

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I have confirmed attendance for Affiliate Summit 2008 in Boston. As a tribute to a blast from the past here is some zany photos from a 2007 Summit where Sam Harrelson, of CostPerNews, and I went Hunter S. Thompson style. 

View Album

Get your own

 
Event: Affiliate Summit West 2007
Location: Las Vegas
Photos in Library: 125 Photos
Library Size: 22 MB
Date: Jan 21, 2007

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Since everyone is up in arms over Phorm, and as a security professional I believe there are many valid reasons to be concerned.  I have put together a very simple Q&A. People who know me know that I treat these Q&A sessions fair and square. I take no sides, simply ask the questions and post the responses. The party can even pass on the question.

Phorm has informed me they would decline the Q&A here or at Revenews. If they don’t like the venue I urge others to take the list of questions, make the same offer and add your own. You don’t have to be nasty, just demand to be heard. Here we go- some questions I, and other security professionals, have. I am really curious as to the answers.

Questions for Phorm

Question 1. Why did Phorm not responsibly advise British Telecom (BT) against doing the trials in secret without consent nor explaining it to BT support staff?

Question 2. Is Phorm’s WebWise system currently undergoing development that will make it stealthy?

Question 3. What are the time frames for the next trials, with whom and what should we expect to see?

Question 4. How will Phorm’s WebWise system ask for consent without first intercepting and/or modifying the user’s connections over the Internet?

Question 5. Are Phorm aware that their technology will force many users to switch ISP? Do they feel this is OK?

Question 6. Why do Phorm feel it’s OK to intercept traffic without opt-in consent for profit where officers of the law have to get court warrants for each case?

Question 7. Do Phorm believe that because interception of business e-mails within the same organization is allowed that it means that it’s OK to intercept anyone’s traffic?

Question 8. How will Phorm gain the trust of an entire population after what its done?

Question 9. Why, if Phorm is willing to be so transparent, do Phorm not make this software open source?

Question 10. What happens if the equipment gets hacked and repurposed by hackers?

Question 11. And what happens when exploits are found in third party software they may be using as part of this solution? For example, a regular expression exploit: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/14620

Question 12. Who will police the solution to ensure Phorm will not only follow the privacy laws during the tests, but in ongoing updates too? Does Phorm understand it will need everything checked with any changes, ranging from source code checks to legal requirements checks, demanding a team of specialized people just to monitor their solution?

There you go Phorm. An even dozen. I am happy to post your replies, or you can ignore it all and hope it goes away. History has taught me differently.

ADDENDUM:

William of Ockham chimes in with this comment:

Chris Williams from The Register has been in contact with EU Information Commissioner Vivian Reding.

https://nodpi.org/?p=21

She is monitoring the situation closely and is asking for anyone who is concerned about the covert and potentially illegal trials to send her a letter as soon as possible:

Viviane Reding
Member of the European Commission
BE-1049 Brussels
Belgium

Her email address is available here:

http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/reding/contact/index_en.htm

It is preferable if you send her a physical letter, though. Thanks!

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It appears some were misinformed about aspects of Phorm…here is a copy of the e-mail I received.

Dear Sirs

We are writing to you regarding the forum posting which appears on your website Reality is Relative at the following URLs:

http://www.wayneporter.com/2008/06/07/515/

The forum posting is based on an article published on the website http://nodpi.org/ which made false and defamatory allegations about Phorm Inc and Phorm UK, Inc – that we hijacked and replaced charity advertisements with our own ads.

Phorm have written to the author of the website, Alexander Hanff, and he has agreed to retract the allegations (see the article that now appears at http://nodpi.org/ under the heading “Humble Pie”).

In the circumstances we would be most grateful if you would edit the content on your article to remove the following words:

… which were substituted in place of some charity adverts e.g. from Oxfam.

Yours sincerely

Alex Laity
Phorm

Indeed the author of the blog has written Humble Pie Time as a retraction. I do not intend to edit my blog by deleting content. I will make every effort to get the straight facts and I will annote the blog so it is clear. In addition I have offered up an Interview Q&A at Revenews or here as to which Mr. Laity declined. I will post my questions anyway.

So that it is clear the ads were not hijacked but purchased.

From the Humble Pie Post at Nodpi:

I am unable to remove information posted on 3rd party sites but I will make this appeal to anyone who has posted stories, blogs or comments regarding the charity ads - please could you edit these to make it clear that I have the word of Kent’s solicitor and Emma Sanderson that these ads were in fact purchased and not hijacked.

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Jim Kukral does his Daily Flip, Sam Harrelson does great how-to’s- see this one on the Amazon Kindle, Scott Jangro (from the days of the Jangro Cam) manages to Vlog too…practically everyone I know does video.

Everyone, except me.

To be frank I simply suck at video- I would much rather podcast. I just cannot get into the vibe…so I made a video about how I feel about making videos. You know how stressful making videos can get. (Yeah- I made alot of of gun videos…)

See Guns, Lights and Action

Target Acquired Video

Thank You For Your Business

P.S. Word to you Brian Clark…Bring on your RPGs Obiwan. I can’t wait for the  next ARG. 

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Your Apple QuickTime Player  should be updated to version 7.5 right away due to the discovery of several vulnerabilities.

1) A boundary error when parsing packed scanlines from a PixData structure in a PICT file can be exploited to cause a heap-based buffer overflow via a specially crafted PICT file.

2) An error in the processing of AAC-encoded media content can be exploited to cause a memory corruption via a specially crafted media file.

3) A boundary error in the processing of PICT files can be exploited to cause a heap-based buffer overflow via a specially crafted PICT file.

4) A boundary error in the processing of Indeo video codec content can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow via a specially crafted movie file with Indeo video codec content.

5) An error in the handling of “file:” URLs can be exploited to e.g. execute arbitrary programs when playing specially crafted QuickTIme content in QuickTime Player.

Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities may allow execution of arbitrary code.

Original Advisory:
Apple:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1991

Secunia Research: http://secunia.com/advisories/29293/

apple boundary error buffer overflow patches quicktime secunia Security software updates

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Second Life and the Future 

I have been in Second Life for a long time now, at least in avatar years. I have been fortunate to find many, many bright people and despite its problems that is the single most important reason I have stayed and still do despite a growing wave of virtual worlds that will soon hit the Net. Whether or not Bleys Chevalier and I release MicroPepper and RegionTracker is still under consideration given stability issues.

It is these same issues that prompt this blog. MicroPepper and Region Tracker are designed to let sellers (or universities) scale their micro-vending operations, reporting, and affiliate force with a low-cost flat rate fee- in our opinion it is the best, but that is our opinion. Right now if a delivery fails on initial delivery, we make at least ten more re-attempts to deliver. Starting to get the drift of the pain digital crafters are feeling? You must be able to allow content creators the ability to SCALE and that means reducing customer service overhead.

(Note: If you want to beta test MicroPepper or Region Tracker contact Bleys Chevalier or Corwin Chevalier in-world or message me at Twitter . Currently with only a handful of beta testers the system processes about 500,000 Lindens per month and you can also track your SLEX sales, visitors, frame rates, etc, etc.)

My Timeless Mentor

At any rate one person stands out who has been a great mentor, Timeless Prototype often known for his Multi Gadget, Mookah (Sheesha, Hookah), Radio Controlled Planes, Walk and Talk and a certain couch that I spent hours writing copy for *cough*. I doubt there are few people in Second Life who do not possess a Multi Gadget. I give them out as welcome gifts. There are many knock-offs, but the Multi Gadget does it all. (O.K. It cannot protect you from Prokofy Neva, who is my second favorite person in Second Life.)

Tracking Timeless

As the lore goes, I tracked him down to his underground club, Timeless Underground, where we discussed ancient philosophy over a game of chess, but this is Second Life and nothing is out of the question- like playing chess in a club that looks like an Elder God from the Cthulu mythos was sawed into pieces and scattered about while people are experimenting with trance dance moves from the Matrix.

We, even today, continue our philosophical discussions and he was integral if not essential in collaborating with me on the Primula Rasa  (here for more photos), and the Monolith 8 campaigns, and I was happy to donate island use for the 4th Annual Satellite Exhibition (4ASE) (Click to See Video). You should also catch his famous London Eye and he is also known for helping out with Relay For Life. Warning- his idea of fun is hanging out in sand boxes while dodging LOLCube attacks…in his own words:

I “grew up” in the sandboxes, and it’s always good to remember where you come from in life, even in Second Life, and show your respects. - Timeless Prototype

Time Stands Still?

At any rate Second Life has had its share of issues- as any platform does, but as of late developers are getting waspish. While I parlay with Time on a daily basis I was concerned when I saw this on a scripting list:

 ”…object to object e-mails failing, replying to offline IMs via e-mail
failing, and I’m srsly DONE asking

daily issues

enough!

I’ve taken the Multi Gadget vendor offline, tiered down, waiting for
island parcel rental to expire. I will treat SL as a beta game and/or
chat room until general stability returns.”

Seemed like a good time to get a few answers straight from Time. 

Interview with Timeless Prototype (a.k.a. Time)

Wayne) OK Time, for the uninitiated how long have you been in Second Life?

Time) Since 2004.

Wayne) That is a long time as avatars go. So I take it you do you enjoy the platform?

Time) Yes, it appeals to me on artistic, technical and social levels. No other virtual world comes close to this.

Wayne) I can identify with that. So why pull your vendors offline as I noted in a scripters list ?

Time) If people buy stuff that won’t deliver and I can’t reply via offline IMs because I’m not always at my computer, then I’m going to get unhappy customers…customer satisfaction is incredibly important.

Wayne) What are the top three upsides to Second Life? 

Time) Top three positives: Creativity outlet, shared experiences with friends and micropayment capital of the Internet.

Wayne) How about the top three negatives?

Time) Top three negatives: insufficient business and collaboration tools, intermittent stability and no shiny alpha and shadow casting (immersion is very important, anything that breaks the immersion is a big failure IMHO)

Wayne) As a long-standing and well known veteran where do you think Linden Labs should marshall their resources?

Time) Linden Labs should focus on stability, even if that is to be interpretted as adding new features such as Kelly Linden’s work to make it possible to send HTTP requests to scripts in world so that we won’t need to rely on e-mail protocols for sending data into SL. Hopefully this could also be used for messaging between scripts in world too, being careful about security implications of course.

There is currently also a glitch with rendering updated objects such that the most recent change to the objects does not get applied visually until it is either selected or further updated. It impacts the immersion factor at the end of the day, you bring your mind out of the world by one level to recognize that it’s a glitch.

Wayne) When can we expect your vendors to go back online?

Time) There is currently no planned date for bringing them back online. I guess I need my faith to be restored in the Second Life platform before I commit more time to it, at least from a serious content creation perspective.

Wayne) Any parting words of advice?

Time) Hope can be a very powerful driver. If we lose hope, we’ve lost everything.

That’s all folks…let’s hope Linden Lab get things sorted out. Next topic- Security in Second Life…oxymoron or…

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