Cool Department

NPR unveiled its new API. An API is a way to grab content and make mashups or other neat things. API stands for Application Program Interface. Code jockeys can create widgets for blogs or Facebook apps taking advantage an archive of more than 250,000 stories going back to 1995.

NPR’s API provides a flexible, powerful way to access NPR content, including audio from most NPR programs, text, images and other web-only content from NPR and NPR member stations.

Once registered you can access the API by constructing a URL with parameters indicating what stories you want the API to return. The default format of the results is NPRML, a custom XML structure specifically designed to represent all of NPR’s digital content.

The API can also return results in RSS, MediaRSS, JSON, Atom and through HTML and JavaScript widgets with more result options promised.

Check it out! http://www.npr.org/api

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I am pleased to offer readers this exciting, new, and entirely free professional resource.

Visit the Free Industry resource center today to browse a huge selection of 600+ complimentary Industry magazine subscriptions. Get these sample popular titles including:

PipeLine and Gas Technology
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FierceHealthFinance
Online Fraud Report – 2008 Edition Today
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Achieving Data Privacy in the Enterprise: An Introductory Guide to Implementing Data Privacy Solutions

If you like to read and stay up on the best material- for free then Try it today!

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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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My brother is a stickler for deals. A true system gamer. I have not tested his methodology below but figured I would pass it along for those who will go through loops to get deals. The deal is at Buy.com and for the Logitech 9000 camera- which gets good rankings. One one deal you get a reduced price and the other, if you go through all the hoops I think you actually get paid.

Compare to the 9000 (Logitech website)

You can get this camera for $45.73
9000

Buy.com Price:     $85.73
Shipping:      FREE

Sign up for the buy.com visa and get $30.00 off =  $55.73
 

New Google Checkout Customers: (only if you are new)
Instantly receive $10 off your first Google Checkout order!
Limit one per customer.

With the Google perk you get another $10.00 off  =$45.73

Not bad, but what if buying a camera actually put money in your pocket?
 

Get Paid to Buy This Camera

Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 (Click Here) - 960-000048

1) Check camera make sure it is one you want.

2) Surf here and get the $40.00 rebate form.  Ends june 11 2008

3) Sign up for Buy dotcom Visa and get $30.00 off

4) Use Google checkout and get $10.00 off

Buy.com price:     $59.99
Price After Rebate(s):$19.99
Shipping:      FREE
Google Checkout -$10.00  = $9.99
Buy.com visa -$30.00 =  You get the camera and paid $20.00

I have not went through the process, but my brother is pretty sharp about these sort of things. If you are one of those people who love deals- have at it and let me know if it worked. If you really like the post consider casting a vote at Digg and spreading the word. Keep in mind some shops will not let you “stack” promotions- for just this reason.

ADDENDUM on Camera Prices:

I did a little price searching on the Logitech 9000 (not the one with USB) to see how this deal stacked up. Pretty darn good. Here are the results from a random sampling of competitors that sell the product. Dell, OnSale, and NewEgg seemed to fair the best, but I did not note any special deals. Happy Hunting.

• Pricerunner France 70.02 EUR
• PCRush  $92.73 USD
• xPCGear $89.99 USD
• NewEgg $84.99 USD
• Otto Produktkatalog 99.99 EUR
• Shop.com $87.80 USD
• Skype $99.99 USD
• Webhallen Product Catalogue kr745.00
• inWarehouse Product Catalogue kr745.00
• UK Product Catalog 69..99 GBP
• Camera World $90.45 USD
• WolfCamera $90.45 USD
• PCMall $92.99 USD
• Dell $79.99 USD
• Shoplet $87.95 USD
• OnSale $74.99 USD

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ISP Data- Who Owns That Data Anyway? 

Fifteen of the nation’s leading privacy and public interest groups  released a letter urging Congress to hold hearings on the growing practice of Internet Service Providers targeting ads to subscribers based on their personal Web activities.

The letter urges the House Telecommunications Subcommittee leadership to investigate the plan of Charter Communications to capture all of the messages and activities of its Internet subscribers and share that data with a third-party firm, which plans to use the data to target those consumers with specific ads. The plan raises serious privacy and legal issues, the letter says.

PHORM- Oh My Get the Guns

This one  had my colleague Timeless Prototype up in arms, hell they are even picketing BP shareholders over in the U.K. where people still value privacy (even though there are more surveillance cameras in the UK than I care to think about)…I found some good reading at the CDT blog.

Last week, the European Commission issued an answer to several queries regarding Phorm, a U.K. company that uses Internet traffic data to serve targeted advertisements. Phorm has proposed partnerships with some of the United Kingdom’s largest ISPs that allow Phorm to use deep packet inspection (DPI) to create profiles of individual consumers’ Web habits. Several members of the European Parliament asked the European Commission whether Phorm’s actions constitute an invasion of privacy contrary to European Union privacy protections.

European Commission & ePrivacy Directive

In its response to these questions (Joint answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission Written questions : E-1884/08 , E-2227/08 , E-2576/08 ), the European Commission explained how the Phorm system intersects with the EU ePrivacy Directive. The Commission declared that, under the directive, the Web traffic information collected by Phorm is “traffic data” and the content of search queries intercepted by Phorm constitutes “communication,” both of which are protected from interception or surveillance without consumer consent.

The Commission noted that the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) — which enforces U.K. data privacy laws — is responsible for monitoring Phorm’s actions. In a review of Phorm’s DPI plans, the ICO said that Phorm’s system “does not appear to be” harming consumers. The ICO will be scrutinizing Phorm’s actions, however, to ensure that the company delivers on its promises to not violate consumer privacy rights.

The Commission itself is also taking ICO’s wait-and-see attitude, promising to remain vigilant in continuing to observe the situation and to “take appropriate action, should the need arise.”

 Here is Timeless Prototype’s Take:

Phorm’s Webwise system is a fascinating exploration of technology that is not fit for a commercially-sensitive Internet because if consumers lose trust in the Internet service they receive, it will harm the economy that is built around the Internet.

Even if that loss of trust has no factual basis! If this is not the case, it will simply be that the Internet ‘heals’ itself as consumers migrate to more trusted ISPs. The latter is already taking place regardless of cost and inconvenience to the consumer.

Many people in the UK have written to their MPs requesting an answer to the question: “If BT’s trials of the Webwise system were ‘illegal’ due to non-informed consent of the customers, then why has no criminal investigation begun?”

If it does go to court, it will be very important for each of the parties involved in the trials to show consistency in their actions at all times if they are to potentially get off lightly by showing that their intentions were pure. However, it may not go down so well if they are asked the question: “when issues were pointed out with the proposed solution, why was no action taken to remedy them?” But, this would really only apply if further trials of the system were to actually take place.

Currently it appears to be in a state of limbo. A grace period if you like where Phorm have the opportunity to hold off further public trials in order to implement changes that fix all the issues that have been highlighted. To deploy it now without making the changes whilst knowing about the issues opens them up to further litigation.

On the flip side, will this mean Phorm might try to make it completely stealthy and undetectable to the users and the web site owners? I’d like to hear a public statement from Phorm with regards to this question.

I will be following the progress of this very closely, as I’m sure many others are too.

You Bet I Will

NO time like the present to rattle the famous paperghost cage and my other Security MVP pals.

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Bingr.com has released what appears to be a time sensitive split testing service for bloggers…For 30 days - you get detailed reports about who’s clicking your links. (After 30 days, your links will continue to redirect, but will not be tracked.)

This is is how it works and it is pretty easy to do.

Take this URL for the SLExchange (New Window) where you can get a Linden-based commission for making a referral, if a person purchases. Common practice. Yeah- affiliate marketing in Second Life. Novel huh?

http://www.slexchange.com/index.php?affiliate=e4ae92a68b86af46da9a13873783f1

With the Bingr service you give the URL a simple name. If you are going to do multiple tests beyond A/B like multi-variate, etc. You might want to use a simple convention slex1, slex2, slex3, slex4. It doesn’t matter because the service is still going to return a random string.

Thus the long URL above becomes: http://bingr.com/5i92

Not exciting, but split testing from various multi-verses could get interesting.

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I left a response for Jason Calacanus here on feedback. No, I am not angry at Jason, but I don’t need to thank him for what I, and others have been blasting on about for several years…in the trenches fighting some very, very bad stuff. Search engine spammers and good content taking over ranks? I have a collection of busts that make SERP spam child’s play. Nor do I need to benchmark myself- but feel free. I open sourced myself awhile ago. Painful to do, but I did it.

What I really want to do is to be able to thank Jason, Mike Arrington, Robert S, and all the other technical evangelists in the valley, for getting involved and dialing up the pressure- but doing so in a way that preserves those who act with integrity, and not wiping them out because they are “small”. We can usually spot spam right away, but the idea that people can define the quality of my aesthetic is not where we are going. The leaders need to lead and smaller is fine.

I also see no problem with Mahalo and as noted below, and blogged here somewhere, it passed my annual “malware” around “game cheats” stress test. Admirable. I even offered up Caledon at Revenews as a prototypical community of curators and content makers. Sam Harrelson notes the challenges and I simply say Jason- don’t forget community. Community is content. It might be hard to grok, but you have my digits now- happy to explain what I discovered.

I didn’t make it to the keynote, nor did we get a chance to speak at the dinner, which is a shame…what you said is nothing new to me however. Actually, in many ways it seemed to be naive….e.g. “but also the FTC, which doesn’t take nicely to covert marketing.”

Really? I was on the Spyware Panel with MSFT, AT&T, MIT and Webroot…two or three years later, at Esther Dysan’s summit, I sat in line with Eric Howells and said “WTF? Why are we still playing this game of semantics? Three years later?” No- the government is not going to stop it.

At any rate I am preparing a blog post on what Sam archived, plus some additional rambling stuff…but obviously I just don’t have as much social capital as you and that is ok- my job is to influence the influencer here. You can help by listening because I know the core of the problem far better and if a strong influencer, like you, and others in your sphere would talk with the right people, work with the “affiliates” (btw- merchants are my affiliates- that is how I see it.) and understand the issues on a very granular level- we might win this war. Because as one who started very small and has been all over the major press for years, at panels, summits even speaking at RSA. I feel I have failed…and I am worn out.

This is why I hate the A list label and think it is bad. Basic network theory says elitist groups becomes cliquish and homogeneous and there are no bridges for carriers of new ideas or viewpoints to enter. (Network gets too big- you can’t control it.)

Hopefully I can stay up long enough to finish it at Revenews. Creating Mahalo is nice, and hey it passed my malware test for gaming cheats, but it isn’t enough. I expect more from you and I think you are missing a core component.

If you and other tech. evangelists, etc do not step up TOGETHER and work with others- it will be toast or the reaction is going to be full of collateral damage that really sucks because there is nothing wrong with starting out small and working hard and doing it on your own dime. Every giant company was small once.

This is beyond money, this is Snowcrash, this is a digital society in decay.

Old books show us the pattern and we are at an inflection point- pay attention at the very least, but I am asking for action instead of apathy. It isn’t all about search and content and how timely for Esther Dyson to invest in the social- the same Esther I spoke with years ago. I don’t need to search and click as much if I have a community of trusted peers to ask. Steve Boyd notes “years ago” and we are about to pass over that horizon. The pattern was written long ago:

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Tor Books): Ender Wiggin battles it out with the Formics in this Hugo-Award-winning novel that is perhaps the quintessential guide for the new blogging metaphor. Pay special attention to Peter and Valentine as they control the nets through alternate personas. Make special note of the protagonist’s psychological development and monitoring by the “Mind Fantasy Game.”

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (Putnam Adult): The science of pattern recognition aims to classify data based on previous experience and through statistical mining of patterns. In this contemporary novel, the readers explore the concept of “cool spotting,” which has been in use in marketing for many years, through the eyes of Cayce Pollard. Pollard is an incredibly intuitive market-research consultant. Marketers should get an idea for new metrics and perhaps new ways to measure the efficacy of campaigns as well as the importance of looking ahead for future trends.

And it is…all in the context of a virtual world experiencing a state of rapid decay. Who do you blame?

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Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, and Dennis Hwang, Webmaster Manager and Chief Google Doodler Asks…. what if you could have your doodle on the page of Google in place of the logo?

Heh. Personally I would probably doodle something that would land me in trouble…they probably figured adults like me shouldn’t be turned loose with crayons. Therefore the kids get a whack at the scholarship.

However, with the Doodle 4 Google competition, we’re making an exception…

Doodle 4 Google gives U.S. students in grades K-12 the opportunity to design a doodle for the Google homepage. Students will be asked to draw a doodle that best represents the theme “What if…?” We ask ourselves this question every day when we build our products, so we thought we would ask the same of the future doodlers.

A panel of expert judges and Googlers will select 40 regional winners, who will be invited to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, in May. Four national finalists will be announced as the result of a public vote. From there, Dennis will select one lucky student whose doodle will be on the Google homepage for a day in the U.S. This winner will also receive a $10,000 college scholarship and a technology grant for his or her school.

Googleplex…ensure your children have security clearance! Seriously I am going to take my own shot at a doodle and try to sneak it in and save a kid (he or she can have the scholarship)…not like my GUID gives away my age…well I know it does, but I will try it anyway.

And for all of you that tried to draw Tippy the Turtle for years…this is your chance to subvert the system since we are going to stop taking it all so seriously.

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Developer Autodesk states with the next revolution of 3ds Max, it will be splitting the release into two products, 3ds Max 2009 Entertainment, for game and movie producers, and 3ds Max Design 2009, for architects, designers and visualization specialists.

The gaming/entertainment version will feature aa new Reveal rendering toolset to streamline iterative workflows, a ProMaterials material library for simulating real-world surfaces, and new UV editing tools. It will also include Recognize, a new scene-loading technology which it says will significantly improve the inter-application workflow with Revit Architecture 2009.

The “design branded version” will include all features of the entertainment branded version, with the exception of an included SDK (software development toolkit), used primarily in game and video markets to to integrate software into a production pipeline and develop in-house tools to be used in conjunction with the 3ds Max. The design version will also include “Exposure technology,” to simulate and analyze sun, sky, and artificial lighting.

Bottom line- Autodesk recognizes that entertainment and game makers have very different, and obviously strategic needs as to those who are say- making a building. When you start putting out dual flavors that usually means a market is set to bloom and become lucrative. One has to wonder what impact Second Life is or will have on the high end industry?

Where is Maya? I’ll have to dig around.

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We knew this was coming since CIA backed In-Q-Tel sold Sketchup to Google…along with Google Earth formerly, known as Keyhole- I think. Never can keep up on that sector. Don’t act surprised- it is plain sight folks.

Google Going Grid?

The Multiverse Network is announcing a partnership today that will allow you to create a virtual world using Google Earth and Google’s 3D Warehouse, a repository of 3D models created using tools like Google Sketchup. So, say if a city has 3D models built of it’s buildings, you could create a virtual world from them, almost instantly using this new technology. They are planning on showing Architectural Wonders at the Virtual Worlds conference tomorrow in San Jose, California.

Wonder what Second Life folks think? I’ve noted some ex-Lindens in the Google officer’s mess. Yet I am not so quick to throw in their towel (although at times…)- Google does not like to create content, they really don’t like controversy, and really I don’t think they like to police content either (hint- it doesn’t scale)…still I take their Grid over Second Life’s anyday who knows…perhaps it won’t be so proprietary and “grid crasher” will come to fruition ala Open Sim.

I also have to wonder if Second Life saw a bit of light encryption coming…or if they wonder what might be coming next since this is just a light warm up I am sure. Yeah I am really, really sure more is coming. 100%…and this is important. Not object-to-object- person-to-person or avatar to avatar. Your nomenclature may vary.

Second Life Encryption- weak like mint tea- but the concept is there.

What You Get: The Chevalier Encoder HUDS come in packs of 2, 5, 10 and 20. One for you and one for whomever you want to chat with securely, each avatar is required to have one to be able to join the chat.

How it works: The HUD, or heads up display, includes an on-screen keyboard, which you attach from inventory. It will attach itself to the top center location of your screen, which of course, you can change as you do you other HUD’s, and place it somewhere other than the top center.

To use the Encryption Keyboard HUD click the “Menu” button and select “New Chat” or “Add To Chat” from the dialog that pops up, you will be given a list of avatars in range (96 Meters), then select the avatar with whom you wish to speak to (or add to an existing session) in encrypted form and a notice is sent to their HUD, which they must be wearing. A random pass-code is generated and swapped between HUD’s, and then you can safely communicate with that avatar or avatars.

You may also choose a pre-determined pass phrase that everybody wearing the Chevalier Encryption HUD knows, by keying in the group pass phrase and clicking the “Set Pass” button, and everyone can talk in group chat- encrypted.

Communication works Sim wide once pass-codes/phrases are swapped and chat begins.

NOTE: This version of the HUD uses simple encryption so while no other avatars can read it, the text is still visible to Linden Labs. It is also notable that the keying in of information is slow using the screen keyboard; you can also enable a chat channel to speed up encoded chatting, although this is not as secure. A high numbered random channel is selected each time you enable this feature, but using presets can help, and the look of the faces of the enemy is priceless.

I tried it- it is slow as stated, but for emergencies- it works, and fun to hit channel scanners with. Really….plus SOX, HIPPA, e-discovery- remember all that kids? VoIP or IM, e-mail or chat, no matter how ephemeral the medium it has to be archived if you are a publicly traded company. Not sure how encryption fits in there.

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Fictional world lover? Try http://www.galaxiki.org/.

“Galaxiki is a virtual galaxy with over a million stars and solar systems - each star, each planet and each moon represents one wiki page and site members can name and edit them, creating an entirely fictional world. It’s also possible to “purchase” a star or a solar system, so that only you (and not other community members) can name and edit it.”

Neat. Hat tip on this find to Sam Harrelson. My vacation started today…appropriately with major network problems (I am still working on)…perhaps the universe is trying to tell me something.

My wife picked up a copy of Phillip Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” for my vacation reading…with an introduction by the sorely missed Roger Zelazny, touched upon here, as I covered China Mieville and New Weird.

Interestingly enough the last Harry Potter book hits the shelves tonight at midnight and Mieville’s latest foray entitled- “Un Lun Dun” is certainly targeting that crowd. People can knock Harry Potter all they want- the fact that kids are lining up to buy a book- matters.

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Biz Partner and business visionary Vinny Lingham has launched Synthasite into alpha. I know Vinny, I know he is damn smart (Yeah ok… Kwisatz Haderach smart), and I have high hopes for Synthasite…and while this news is a bit late on my blog- I am looking forward to the beta version.

Synthasite, an AJAX based Web Publishing Platform, emerged today from stealth mode. The 6-person startup based in Cape Town, South Africa was recently spun out from the incuBeta group as a separate stand-alone company that will focus on delivering a world class web based software platform for web publishing, focusing specifically on Widgets & Mashups. Synthasite looks and feels like desktop software, but remains firmly rooted in the browser with no reliance on client side technology.

Facebook Tangent Alert

I wonder if Vinny will tap into Facebook?…of course one might read the TOS behind Facebook, because it really is just that- your face, your life, your friends- like a book. Not that Web 2.0 hasn’t made it one already- think of it is more a Bible. But funds setup and earmarked to monetize Facebook? The value is in the data if you ask me. Time to go see I guess.

I mean imagine Google’s Grand Central fused with Facebook, caramelized with Google Analytics…uber social network. Ripe for engineers like Brian Clark and ripe for others…

Things are changing from widgetry to Nielson sobering up over pageviews (think engagement), and while some call it insanity…these dozens of fast-tracked, micro-investments are a pittance compared to what really sits in the value of Facebook- it is not insanity too me.

Check out this Video from Google and a talk from Fred from UNC Chapel Hill and his research into “The Facebook”. Yes according to Fred- Facebook owns your campus. Zoho has tapped in, LinkedIn and StumbleUpon (ebay) has tapped in, even colleague Steve Rosenbaum has tapped Magnify into FaceBook. (Steve- yes people taking JPGs of JPGs!)….

One takeaway from the research talk Fred finds that friends in Facebook “are not real”, they are not quite like the friendships we form off line. I see the SAME type of behaviors in Second Life- friendship formation is not the same as face-to-face friendship formation- even with an avatar as proxy. People are hanging out and learning about each other. Second Life is different though, in the Facebook you are identity sharing, in Second Life the identity you share is not quite the same…

Also pay close attention to the concept of situational relevance. IN particular freshman who must renegotiate their “social network” and identity formulation and reformulation. This is the hinge pin of Facebook’s success. Again similar principles with Second Life where people can “try on” different identities…in a “walled garden”…

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An early AM post…Wrap up the day before I start…special thoughts are with Twitter which is undergoing surgery: “We will be performing planned acupuncture of the Twitter server from 1AM-3AM PST, so if you’re typing an update between those times do it very slowly.”. Ouch.

- Congrats to JDA on entering fatherhood and reporting his child’s measurements like a fish.

- A nice discussion regarding Twitter Versus Blogger. The value is in the comments.

- Sam also goes on to write about Google and Gadgets. I wrote about that too- at leat a bit of history. I like Vista’s Gadgets…. Oddly enough Yahoo! was way ahead of the game, but I don’t think people got “Konfabulator”. Now Google will monetize them. I seem to recall Cashpile having an application circa 1998 or so that was much like a widget, but the high CPM’s killed it. It was called a “Pallate”, or something to that effect.

Sam says:

“The link is dead. Content customization based on a relationship (even as simple as user registration or co-registration) and micro-systems of delivery of that content is the new black. Affiliate marketing, with its ability to make relationships, has a great opportunity to make use of widgets and widget delivery to set the larger industry standard.”

Co-registration is pretty weak, in terms of a relationship, but a relationship it is. The race for your desktop and your cell phone are on.

- I have been playing Trendio a bit- now this is a game that is perhaps best played via a widget with a website to support it…i found it when the creator added me to his Twitter pool. Word of advice to guys in Stockholm- Geotarget IPs so Americans are served up ads where they can shop- or perhaps not- maybe exposure to other venues is good…I wish someone would tell me where to find the source code to Solar Realms Elite- an old BBS game.

- Which leads me to the “tagging meme” on productivity- per Andrew Wee. I paricipated in this one and was pleased to see it circle around and found this blogger in Malayasia- Cikgu Azleen. She writes, “I’ll share you one of my secret. Go to other blogs and write about their post. Don’t just write about anything they wrote. Choose something that is related to your niche and blogs about it. Create something sensational or curiosity.”

My humble advice is to write about what you are passionate about- what motivates you- in your own voice and style. Take chances and take risks with your thoughts and ideas. You won’t need the adsense blackhat book.

Part deux coming up.

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At least episode I does…(I Worship his Shadow). The guys who brought you Skype now bring out Joost, and so far I am impressed…back to Lexx, a show I never thought I would catch again.

“I am Kai. Last of the Brunnen-G. Millenia ago the Brunnen-G led humanity to victory in the war against the insect civilization. The Time Prophet predicted that I would be the one to destroy the Divine Order and The League of 20,000 Planets. Someday that will happen, but not today, as today is the day of my death. The day our story begins…”

– Kai (I Worship His Shadow)

Those wanting a free Joost invite- just drop a note, I’ll get to it as I can, it appears to the tight caps are being lifted.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Dell shipping Ubuntu- this is truly the technological war of my generation… You don’t have to be a genius to see where this all leads.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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Per Mashable…

Dodgeball, the text-message based social networking service, seems to have been left for dead.

Dennis Crowley, the founder of Dodgeball, and Alex Rainert have both left the sinking Dodgeball ship. Acquired by Google in 2005, Crowley insists that Google is not providing the resources necessary to innovate their service, let alone keep up with recently popular Twitter and newcomer Jaiku. Crowley and Rainert have decided to quit Google, leaving Dodgeball to fend for itself. An announcement from Crowley says that the whole experience at Google was frustrating, “especially as we couldn’t convince them that Dodgeball was worth engineering resources, leaving us to watch as other startups got to innovate in the mobile + social space.”

In the end, that leaves Twitter the reigning chief. Not that their dominance was in question as of late, but Dodgeball is sure to meet its end very soon. It’s a shame that Google never built up Dodgeball, considering the current and future mobile market, but then again, Google has $3.1 billion deals to tend to.

Much is going on, but here we hear Dodgeballers are leaving…why? In my opinion you might have Google who has developed more of a sweetspot for Twitter…(not to mention the smack down on Double Click granted MSFT doesn’t throw in a legal tackle with anti-trust- huh?)…ok I am not counting out Jaiku (now hatching an API), but I dunno…at least the banner might come back…back!

Ha! Steve Rubel and I agree…if you cannot see the value in Twitter or Oxbow lakes- if you cannot see the massive changes that “micro-chunking” will bring. Well…You cannot be helped…really you are doomed. Rumor is that all your Facebook might be curling up with Twitter features???

Then you do you have to wonder…AOL….MSFT, Yahoo, or Google? Who is going to acquire America Online- because you can “feel it”. My money was on MSFT, but after this, I think it might be Google might- who knows…hint to Microsoft- a war chest is not a war chest- unless you use it to go to war- damnit! Makes you wonder about Valueclick and CJ?

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Open Source Cinema…ok perhaps we were before our times (the first actually) with Nothing So Strange…I know Flemming has been pushing for Open Source Film for some time and know he ponders what everyone is pondering- how will film makers make money this go around? Will they still go searching for someone to fund their film, or perhaps cultivate the fan base on the Net (ala Blair Witch Style) and prove it out? If they did, if they could, they might retain rights to some lucrative aspects of the film like merchandising, or comics, etc. Film makers, like many web marketers, really haven’t mastered marketing online yet- I know Hollywood surely misses the mark.

The Manifesto (From the OSC site):

1) Copyright Is Theft!

Every time we copyright a work, we are robbing from the Public Domain. We are denying others the freedom to share the ideas we have given life to. We are denying others the freedom to build on our ideas.

Yes, Copyright in some sense is necessary. It is an incentive to create, to encourage “the progress of science and useful arts” . But when it is the life of the author, plus 75 years? That’s a theft of our collective heritage.

My Response: OK so is it theft or not? Again I liked NSS’s model where we owned the original copyright to the film, but others can get raw footage and make their own original works. Amazing how it took YouTube/Google for that to gel…

2) Music Wants To Be Free!

On the advice of my lawyer, I must qualify the above statement. Of course artists need to profit from their work. But as my lawyer explains, over the years copyright has mutated from something that was supposed to encourage art by guaranteeing a limited profit for artists, into something that corporations use to control the supply of art, music and ideas—long after the artists have passed away. It used to be that art would fall into the public domain after its creators had made money from it for a few years - but nowadays, the public domain is an antique concept.
Corporations have much longer life spans than individuals, so from their point of view, their copyrights should never expire. As Sonny Bono put it (congressman Sonny Bono, that is), “copyright should last forever minus a day.”

As a result, artists are having a harder time building on art from the past. Culture—which needs to live and breathe and evolve—is being stored in vaults, released at the discretion of corporate interests. So this film project is about more than just music, it’s about the future of all creativity. As John Oswald once said: “If creativity is a field, then copyright is a fence.”

My Response: Music wants to be free? Music i I suppose that is possible, software wantes to be free too- and while we have many worthy free software (note free software and open source are different). It is all about the distribution, that “Long Tail” thing, and realizing we are moving away from a hit-driven culture to a niche, choice-driven culture.

3) Film is Fascism!

The traditional approach to creating films, especially documentary films, is flawed. A single perspective cannot hope to capture the nuance of an evolving cultural debate. Sure, Point of View is important. But “The Ecstasy of Influence”, the participatory nature of digital creativity, begs us to create media that invites input from its audience.

My Response: I hardly think that makes it fascism or even flawed. If you apply that thinking, a hundred different POVs is still fascism- fascism ad infinitum. I am all for mixing it up- within the limits of the creator’s permission- that is courtesy. Afterall- they did the work. They may not want input from the audience, a shame really, but I will respect their wishes. Of course we are moving into the “attention economy” and the easiest way to “strike back” is not to give it your attention- ignore the market long enough and it will, it must- react.

4) Film is Pollution!

Travelling the globe, running hours of tape, wasting resources - these are a fact of life for documentary filmmakers. This no longer needs to be the case - with digital tools and transmission, we can crowd-source our ideas with silicon instead of carbon.

My Response: Just by existing we pollute. Digital tools and transmission- heat is released, energy is used, I mean something has to power those boxes!

5) Open Source Cinema!
I am hereby opening this film to the masses. My entire plan, warts and all, can be viewed at the WikiFilm.

Your contributions can be made at the Create section of the site. I invite your participation.

I’m using an innovative open-source filmmaking technique because I believe that this film can’t be a closed argument, it has to be opened up to the community at large. The argument will continue to grow with our culture. This is not dogma. This is evolution.

My Response: Great. I like it. Yes. It is a start. Feels kind of fuzzy…and looks like a new generation doesn’t like the RIAA…and I think eventually it will crumble as we move along. But hey kids- stop going to see lousy films, and listening to lousy bands…oh I guess they have started to do that already. Hey grown-ups stop listening to lousy music and going to see lousy films…

Popularity: 6% [?]

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Sermo bills itself as the “MySpace for physicians”.

Here, physicians aggregate observations from their daily practice and then - rapidly and in large numbers - challenge or corroborate each others opinions, accelerating the emergence of trends and new insights on medications, devices and treatments. You can then apply the collective knowledge to achieve better outcomes for your patients.

O.K. I am skeptical- I have not seen it but I am still skeptical. This is based on my experience as a nurse of several years ago so I might be out of date. While it was some time ago, and I know more docs have adopted PDAs, etc. The one thing a physician (and a nurse) lacks is time…TIME. Seriously. Never, ever enough time.

I recall doing many late night and early morning rounds with doctors I learned very quickly that time was the most valuable thing they have or didn’t have. Don’t waste it, be efficient, and know your stuff. Now I am not saying Sermo is a time waster- I think it would be great if more physicians tuned into the Net. I still think most would do it to get a date first- they just don’t have time.

Nascent thoughts on where and how I would use the “Twitter Concept” in an enterprise. This is inspired after (caveat- haven’t practiced in ten years)

a) Having worked in various hospitals
b) Having to have been hospitalized
c) More than once, due to weather, having to work back-to-back triple shifts, sleep for eight, and get up and do it again. Man talk about the intercom being surreal.

The Problem: The hospital intercom. Nothing more annoying than that squak box. There is a reason we had:

Code Blue- cardiac arrest, resuscitation needed stat.
Code Whites- Hostile patient- back up needed.
Code Reds- Fire- we have a fire.

We didn’t want to alarm patients, never mind we interrupted them all the time.

Scenario: This could use more thought. This is just a five-minute brain dump…to get thinking aligned.

The hospital would employ an enterprise version of the twitter structure- yes I know some work would be needed for HIPPA compliance- but usually a room number will do. I am sure it can be done with more thought. Each nurse call station could easily send a short message that would go to the phone of the charge nurse, one particular charge nurse, or the med nurse, or to a Doc on call, broadcast all over, etc. Short, fast, quiet, use SSL and posts to the intranet too. You could color code the message for priority, have pre-made messages to save time,and/ or a program on the PDA could sort, rate, prioritize, etc.

By viewing the intranet trend data one could see problems that needed correcting, trends, shortages, surpluses, staffing and any abuse of course. I am sure modern Pixus machines already do this for pharmacists- they can look at a nurses’s PRN dosing patterns to spot abuse by comparing it to the standard deviation from the mean. Still simple problems solved can have real savings.

I remember coming up with the simple idea to use the antiquated dumb waiters in one hospital to do routine after-pharmacy-hour medication restocks. Doesn’t sound like much, but imagine 14 units, a nurse having to go up to the pharmacy and gather meds, (say on average 30 minutes off unit.), and three shifts 365 a year. Average wage of ~ $15.00 hour back then. That is a savings of about $115,000.00 a year, not counting increase in patient care with time spent on unit and maybe nurses could get a REAL break.

Twitter- Short Codes - SMS- etc-think short chunks of vital information that must be relayed and read quickly, quietly, and the ability to trend the information by type. Yes the whole micro-blogging concept has many uses yet untapped.

Popularity: 13% [?]

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I admit it. I love to shop for electronics and computer stuff…especially deals. (Reminds self to work on “stacking strategy paper”. While probing for some USB Memory I found some neat deals at BUY USA and BUY CA.

Two Gigs SnowDrive USB 2.0 Flash Drive At the moment, meaninig it could change- this comes to around $9.95 US if you are New to google checkout uand use it or $19.95 with Free Shipping and not new to Google Checkout. This piece of gear is usually pretty pricey- anywhere from $34.00 to $59.00. I am getting one for my youngster.

“ACP-EP Memory has teamed up with the best snowboard companies in the industry to create the first and only authentic “USB Flash Drive Snowboards”. Combining the graphics from actual Forum Snowboards you can get your favorite snowboard graphics, like X-Games Star Eddie Wall Signature Forum Snowboard. For the stylish sneaker net.”

Forum Graphics w/ Rubberized textureNeck strap attachment on USB DriveUSB 2.0 High Speed Interface (USB 1.1 Compatible)True Plug-and-Play connection for hot swap functionLED indicates when drive is in use. Hot-swappable, Plug and Play O/S. 1 x 4-pin Type A Male USB 2.0 - USB.

ACP-EP 2GB USB 2.0 SnowDrive Flash Drive $19.95 Shipped

Dimensions 0.19″ Height x 0.94″ Width x 3.74″ Length
Standard Warranty 2 Year(s)
Compatibility Plug and Play Operating System: Windows 2000Windows XP Mac OS 9.0 or later
Product Name 2GB SnowDrive USB 2.0 Flash Drive

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