GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com

Interesting - RateMyCop.com, a website to watch the watchers, gets some crap from LEO's, and the hosting company pulls the site quicker than you can say "You have the right to remain silent".

The story is disturbing not only for the reaction of the hosting company (I won't name them - they don't deserve the publicity), but also the reaction of law enforcement officers who are afraid of ... what exactly?  Cyber-bullying?  Some whack job will come hunt them down?  They say the website exposes them, but they're government workers in the public eye 24x7 - aren't they exposed anyway?  Shouldn't they want more exposure?

del.icio.us Tags: government,crime,law enforcement,liberty

GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com -- Update | Threat Level from Wired.com

Grady Booch on the morality behind software development | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

Cool little dialogue between Grady Booch, the software engineer's software engineer, and Charles Cooper from CNET.  It's just scratching the surface, and made me think.

del.icio.us tags: philosophy, grady booch, develoment, morality, ethics

Debating the morality behind software development | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

Motorola's New Phone Lineup Includes 18K Gold Snakeskin Razr 2 -- Motorola Phones

I didn't hit on this until I read the subtitle in the story:

The company rolled out nine new phones aimed at consumers who are entertainment hungry and fashion aware. [emphasis mine]

My first thought was: entertainment addicted and fashion victims, more likely.  My second thought was: I guess you have to do something to keep people buying new phones every few months.

What do I use?  A second-hand (I bought it from a friend) Samsung SCH-i730.  Great WM5 phone, Pocket PC sized because I like the form factor (MS Reader is too small to use on Smart Phones).  Next phone?  No idea, but it will be the same form factor...

del.icio.us tags: mobile, windows mobile, cell phone

Motorola's New Phone Lineup Includes 18K Gold Snakeskin Razr 2 -- Motorola Phones

» If kids don’t have electricity, will a laptop change their lives? | Education IT | ZDNet.com

Interesting ZDNet article, which parrots one of the arguments my wife had over OLPC (One Laptop Per Child).  The basic question, as stated in the article title, is whether a laptop will make that big a difference in the hands of a child with no electricity.

Reading the comments, I came across a gem:

Kids in third world countries have already been robbed of their childhood. They face the harsh reality of survival and hunger...

This had to come from someone in the West, probably someone in the U.S.  The notion of someone being "robbed of their childhood" is a completely Western and completely modern notion.  Having a carefree childhood is a completely modern convenience, like a refrigerator and leisure time.  These kids haven't been robbed of anything - they never had a carefree childhood claim to begin with.  Even in the West, up until the early 20th century, children worked, sometimes right alongside their parents.  Some still do in non-Western countries.

Personally, I find the technological aspects of OLPC interesting, but the politics it spawns and the tripe dribbling from the mouth of neo-socialists who back the project is quite irritating.  I'm no advocating doing nothing - doing something to help is always better - but for the love of humanity, stop deluding yourself about it.

del.icio.us tags: technology, laptop, third world, olpc, politics

» If kids don’t have electricity, will a laptop change their lives? | Education IT | ZDNet.com

Innovation | Don’t invent, evolve | Economist.com

It's not a new technology, but the brief case studies look interesting.

del.icio.us tags: technology

Innovation | Don’t invent, evolve | Economist.com

It's all in the spin: Quantum physics cools down computers

This was a very cool read - light, but cool.  Imagine a computer that doesn't rely on the movement of electrons in a conductor/semiconductor, but rather the spin of those electrons.  While the article focuses on the heat savings, think of the speed increases as well...

del.icio.us tags: technology, quantum mechanics, cool, physics

It's all in the spin: Quantum physics cools down computers

Odd headline given the date

So to is July 5, 2007, right?  7/5/07, if you live in the U.S.  Given the date, the byline linked to below at supercomputingonline.com is just a bit confusing then.  Here's my problem...

I've some friends who work for Boeing Aircraft here in Seattle.  They have told me that the Dreamliner won't even be unveiled until July 8, 2007 (7/8/07, get it?  The 787 unveiled on 7-8-7?  Never mind...)  Flight tests won't be for a while, and the first delivery isn't scheduled until May 2008.

So aren't the guys at supercomputingonline.com jumping the gun a bit when they call the Dreamliner a "highly successful aircraft"?  We haven't even seen the thing yet - until 7/8/07, it's vaporware.  Highly successful vaporware, to be sure...

800,000 Simulation Hours Helped Create Design For Highly Successful Commercial Aircraft

del.icio.us tags: technology, journalism

Windows losing ground with developers

A yearly study done by Evans Data, reported by InfoWorld (and being discussed on Slashdot), shows developers targeting Windows platforms fell to 64.8% this year, from 74% in 2006.  Developers targeting Linux rose from 8.8% to 11.8% a year ago - seems small until you realize that's a 34% increase, and Windows dropped 12%.

A comment by caywen on Slashdot caught my attention:

Microsoft's big developer hotness is supposed to be all these great .NET technologies. But the lack of Vista adoption might be putting the brakes on developer enthusiasm because Microsoft is failing to lead the way in showing the end result benefits of it. COM didn't really catch on until Microsoft started demonstrating how hot it was through dogfooding and releasing applications architected on it. With it came a greater degree of modularity and flexibility that they demonstrated compellingly well with IE, Office, Visual Studio, etc. To this day, Microsoft hasn't delivered any real WPF+WCF applications - at least none that a significant number of people care about. They should be pumping out amazing applications that can be showcased on Vista, causing developers to envy and copy them, and causing customers to actually want Vista because of the hotness the developers *and* Microsoft are offering.

I'm not sure how accurate the explanation of the adoption of COM is, but there is a case to be made otherwise.  I'm curious how many of you out there are waiting for MS to lead the way to application nirvana...

del.icio.us tags: developer microsoft windows

Parasite Economy Latches onto New Host

This is a month-old commentary from Cato, but it's still current in geological time...  Basically, it laments the politicization of Google, comparing it to the politicization of Microsoft a few years ago.  It's a different view on the Google v. Microsoft battle you hear about amongst lawmakers, and it's dead on.

Parasite Economy Latches onto New Host

del.icio.us tags: government, capitalism, technology

Welcome to the new millennium

I played Pong when it came out.  Now, Pong has a new face, called Plasma Pong.  TBO reports on the game, which can download and play.  Very cool.

del.icio.us tags: technology, geek, games, graphics