By Cory Doctorow at 6:01 pm Monday, Oct 4
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Stef Magdalinski -- the Brit who led the amazing
They Work For You project, among others -- has unveiled his latest project: a proxy for the BBC News service that identifies proper nouns in BBC stories and auto-links them to their Wikipedia entries.
This was spurred by a longstanding BBC News aversion to linking to external news sources, something out of keeping with the character of the Web.
News Online doesn't engage with its users, it doesn't provide tools that allow me, the licence payer, to slice and dice their stories, and by refusing to link from its body text, it fails to understand how hypertext works.
Also, with its conservative link policy (I can't show you an example of the news stories where the tech described above is working, because the links get removed after 2 days, because they might break), that only connects the BBC to established brands, it snubs the wider web, the great teeming mass of creativity. Patrician is not authoritative. Aloof is not respected. Conservative and fearful is not engaging. The gap between the BBC's utterly laudable self image and ambitions and delivery could not be any clearer than at News Online.
Finally, by not really allowing user interaction or commenting, News Online forces that debate and activity away from its site, and out onto the wild wild web...
* retrieves a page from News Online, and regexes out "Capitalised Phrases" and acronyms. It then tests these against a database of wikipedia topic titles. If the phrase is a topic in wikipedia, then it's turned into a hyperlink
* uses the technorati API to add a sidebar of links to blogs referencing the story. Now you can see who's talking about the story from the story itself
* as a bonus, my code breaks that bloody awful ticker. I'm not fixing it.
* because that's how links should be, my links are underlined.
* reduces page bloat by about 10% by stripping acres of whitespace.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 5:53 pm Monday, Oct 4
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Laura J Murray has written an excellent piece for the Internet journal First Monday on Canada's cultual practices and copyright.
This article analyses the rhetoric of "protection" ubiquitous in Canadian discussions of copyright policy, and identifies among the various uses of the term both a problematic assumption that protection is or should be the primary function of copyright, and overblown claims about copyright’s power to protect Canadian culture and creators. These "common sense" ideas, fostered by rights–holder lobbies, emerge out of a peculiar Canadian history of cultural nationalism(s), but they may not promote the interests of Canadians. Ironically, while professing fear for their cultural sovereignty, and following the paths of their own internal political, bureaucratic, and rhetorical culture, Canadians appear to be constructing a copyright policy in complete harmony with the needs of American and international capital. I explore a proposal to license educational Internet use, endorsed by parliamentary committee, as one example of the relationship between protection rhetoric and policy development. By casting the Internet as more of a threat than an opportunity, copyright policy developers in Canada are gravely misunderstanding and threatening Canadians’ use of this medium. The participation of Canadians in national and global interaction is crucial to the Canadian public interest, and must not be forgotten in the rush to protection.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 5:46 pm Monday, Oct 4
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Disney is touring China's Communist Youth League centres to promote Disneyland Hong Kong and a potential Shanghai Disneyland.
Such is Disney's faith that China's communist youth will embrace the likes of Mickey Mouse and Sleeping Beauty, the company is doing little to dampen speculation that another theme park will eventually be built in Shanghai.
"There's very little doubt in my mind that there will be a market further north in China for a second Disneyland," said Mr Rasulo.
Link
(
Thanks, Mia!)
By Mark Frauenfelder at 3:36 pm Monday, Oct 4
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My friend Steve Mockus emailed me: "Hey are you familiar with a cute little Russian animation character
named Cheburashka? I've become obsessed with him. It was an animated children's TV show, kind of like Rankin and Bass, but very Soviet, struggling through adversity. The cartoons are fantastic.
LinkUPDATE:Art sez: "Here's a picture I found on Flickr's feed. It's all about the Russian Olympic team, with Cheburashka as the mascot, all torn up and thrown away in a field."
By Xeni Jardin at 1:10 pm Monday, Oct 4
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The age of commercial space flight officially began this morning: SpaceShipOne successfully completed the second of two flights into space within 5 days, securing its win of the $10 million Ansari XPrize. On today's edition of NPR's "
Day to Day" I speak with host Alex Chadwick about today's historic news -- as well as some of the lesser-known space history surrounding Mojave airport, now America's first licensed spaceport.
Link to today's segment.
Before SS1 took off this morning, its designer Burt Rutan said he hoped it would top the 354,200 foot altitude reached 40 years ago by X-15 pilot Joe Walker, also out of Mojave. The X-15 program was a joint NASA/Air Force effort preceding the space shuttle program (NASA photos, videos). And SpaceShipOne did indeed beat that record, climbing to an unprecedented 377,591 feet, then returning to earth in a smooth arc.
At last week's Mojave SS1 launch, I met Richard Russell and USAF Major Greg Frazier, aerospace historians who run an organization called West Mojave Aviation Archaeology. They work to preserve crash sites like the one where a later X-15 pilot, Maj. Michael J. Adams (bio link) lost his life in 1967 during an X-15 research flight. He was the first American astronaut to die on a space mission. Adams' fatal mission was the 191st flight in the X-15 program, and his first suborbital mission. His aircraft crashed after re-entering earth's atmosphere. The X-15 program was canceled the following year.
Frazier led an effort to create a monument to Adams at the X-15 crash site, unveiled in May, 2004 (Link). They're now working to get some of the ship debris into the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, and trying to raise awareness about these sites to protect them from vandalism.
"Florida got all the recogniation for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, and the Antelope Valley here is more known for aircraft achievements -- but X-15 was a spacecraft, so there is some space flight history here," Frazier told me, "Now, with the advent of Space Ship One, there's a whole lot of new history out here."
Link to today's "Day to Day" show on XPrize and X15 history, Link to last week's NPR segment: "First X-Prize Flight a Success for SpaceShipOne", with some of Jason DeFillippo's photos.
See also John Schwartz's fine Xprize/SpaceShipOne coverage in today's New York Times (Link), Dan Brekke's items in today's Wired News (Link), and on-ship footage from the webcast (Link). Also: The New Yorker has a great piece on Rutan this week, but it's not online.
And finally: BoingBoing reader Kevin T. Keith says, "Check out Google today - their logo includes a caricature of SpaceShip One in orbit (being greeted by little green men)."
Image: shot by BoingBoing pal Wayne Correia (background link, email link), who says, "It was so beautiful to watch it shooting straight up from 47,000 to 370,000 ft. when the pilot ignited the rocket. When the craft landed, Paul Allen, Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson went out in a pickup truck to the tarmac so they could greet the pilot and tow it back to their hangar... the three of them were just hanging off the back of the tailgate with the craft in tow, the pilot standing on the roof of the aircraft holding an American flag which he'd just taken into space." Link to Wayne's full-size photo.
By Mark Frauenfelder at 12:41 pm Monday, Oct 4
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Here's the second issue of the
Make newsletter.
Make News No. 2
October 4, 2004
==============
Welcome to the second issue of the Make magazine newsletter. A couple of
weeks ago, I asked you to suggest a name for this newsletter. Dozens of
people replied -- thanks!
Here are some of the suggestions that came in:
Makefile
Modifications
make /usr/share/hack
Create It
Done Deal
DoItNow
Make it Mine
Makers
Make-up-date
The Make a Cake NL
MAKE: The News
Re:Make
We had a lot of good submissions to choose from, but our favorite was
"Make News." Matthew Morrisson was the first to submit it, so he wins the
prize -- a title of his choice from O'Reilly's Hacks Series.
Congratulations, Matthew!
***
In the first issue of Make News, I also asked you to send in your ideas
for Make. A bunch of you wrote back asking for writers' guidelines. Here
they are:
Make Submission Guidelines
Make is a do-it-yourself technology magazine written by makers. When you
write something for Make, use your voice. Tell us the story behind your
project.
There are four types of content in Make: Projects, Features, Reviews, and
Everything Else. (If you have an idea for something that doesn't fit in
one of the first three areas but is still related to do-it-yourself
technology, we'd like to hear about it, too -- hence the Everything Else
category.)
We pay $100 for a review. Payment for other types of content will be
negotiated.
To pitch an idea, email it to Mark Frauenfelder (markf@oreilly.com).
1. Projects
If you've made something cool (or have come up with a cool hack or tweak
for something) and want to show other people how to make one, we'd like to
publish it in our projects section. (Note: We're interested in hearing
about things you've already made, not things you are just thinking about
making.)
Remember this when you are writing for Make: you're the readers' coach.
Think of your reader as a smart person who doesn't necessarily know what
you know. Imagine the questions he or she might have about your project.
Explain everything they need to know to recreate the thing you're writing
about.
We have two kinds of projects. One is called "DIY." This section is for
shorter projects (like swapping a battery out of an iPod, or installing
open source software on your TiVo.) DIY pieces run between 200 and 750
words. When writing a DIY, keep it conversational. These are very much
like explaining to a friend how you did something. Describe difficulties
you encountered, and suggest workarounds. Take digital photos of each step
along the way. Photos should be at least 2 Megapixels.
The second kind of project is a "Major Project." These are more complex
projects that would require a reader at least several hours, if not days,
to complete. If we accept your proposal for a Major Project, you will need
to submit the article in a format that fits our template. We'll provide
you with further instructions.
2. Features
We have several sections with articles about interesting things made by
people or groups of people. "Made on Earth" is a section with large photos
of projects and their makers, along with 200-word stories about them.
"Maker" is a longer profile of a dedicated maker-of-cool-things. And we
also have 600- to 1,000-word articles about groups, companies, clubs, and
technologies relating to DIY projects.
3. Reviews
Is there some gadget, tool, web site, newsletter, instructional video,
book, magazine, CD-ROM, or instrument you already own and love? Then send
your review to "Toolbox," Make's recommendation section.
Reviews should be approximately 300 words, and be written in the first
person. Think more "recommendation" and "experience" when you write these
than "review." We want to hear about your involvement with it.
The old Wired guidelines for reviews went like this: "Write your review.
Then write us a letter explaining why we should devote space to your item.
Throw away your review and send us the letter." That's the way to do it.
4. Everything Else
Do you have an idea involving DIY technology, but doesn't fit in any of
the above categories? Is it interesting? Let us know about it. Tell us
about the time your dad made a homebrew computer based on the Apple II
schematic. Tell us the funny story about the motorized surfboard you made.
What's the strangest experience you've had making something? If it's
surprising or funny, we'll run it.
***
Remember, the first issue of Make is coming in January, so start clearing
off your workbench!
Best regards,
Mark Frauenfelder
Editor in Chief
Make
markf@oreilly.com
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:58 am Monday, Oct 4
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The US Air Force is looking into making bombs out of anti-matter. I want a key ring with a speck of it!
One millionth of a gram of positrons contain as much energy as 37.8 kilograms (83 pounds) of TNT, according to Edwards' March speech. A simple calculation, then, shows that about 50-millionths of a gram could generate a blast equal to the explosion (roughly 4,000 pounds of TNT, according to the FBI) at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
Link (Thanks, John!)
UPDATE:Tom sez: Anti-matter is easier to come by than one might think. 22Sodium isotope naturally emits positrons and this property is used in many nuclear metrology applications (PET scans, positron annihilation spectroscopy, etc.). So a bit of isotope table salt might fit nicely in Mark's ring. Link to PDF file
By David Pescovitz at 10:31 am Monday, Oct 4
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Julie Black, a young artist in Lawrence, Kansas, is exhibiting a collection of deceased and eviscerated dogs, cats, rabbits, fish, and birds constructed out of felt and sequins. (Photo at left by Thad Allender.) From an article about her gallery show, "Dead Pets for Sale":
"I try to work with material accessible to kids," she said. "All the guts are filled with what would be inside Beanie Babies."
Combining a childlike stuffed animal with the gore of intestines bursting out appealed to the artist....
According to Black's artist statement, "Dead Pets for Sale" was the embodiment of her upbringing -- she said she grew up in a violent atmosphere -- and a viable truth she learned that can pertain to all subjects: that the grotesque can be beautiful and vice versa.
Link (via Fortean Times)
By David Pescovitz at 10:07 am Monday, Oct 4
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REpower is completing assembly in Brunsbuettel, Germany of the world's largest wind turbine. The REpower 5M's rotor is 126 meters in diameter with a rated output of 5 megawatts. Once it's operational by the end of the year, it will feed the grid with enough juice to power 4,500 households.
Link (to REpower's site) Link (to Reuters article)
By David Pescovitz at 9:24 am Monday, Oct 4
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New scientific studies by political scientists at Ohio State University reveal that people who regularly watch crime dramas like NYPD Blue are more likely to deem crime as the top problem in this country. These concerns then inform the viewers' opinions of President Bush. Meanwhile, hospital shows like ER seem to impact viewers' opinions about health care. (Paging Dr. Welby!)
(Researcher R. Andrew) Holbrook noted that some observers have been especially concerned about programs like The Daily Show, which has elements of news and entertainment. Some believe that such shows might be confusing to viewers.
“That’s not the real issue,” Holbrook said. “Our results suggest that people don’t have neat dividing lines in their brains between entertainment and political news.
“People go back and forth between the two rather easily. That doesn’t mean they don’t know the difference between entertainment and reality. But they find they can use examples from television programs to illustrate points in real life.”
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 8:12 am Monday, Oct 4
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After years of making fun of "linking policies" that set out the terms under which a website can be linked to, Boing Boing has decided to create a linking policy of our own. Here it is -- now, abide by it!
Boing Boing doesn't believe in linking policies. They're dangerous, have no basis in law, and they break the norms that make the Web possible. They're a wicked, stupid idea.
That said, if you believe in linking policies --
that is, if you believe that people who make websites should be able
to control who links to those sites and how -- then have we got a policy for
you:
No site with a linking policy (other than a policy such as
this one, created to deride and undermine the idea of linking
policies) may link to Boing Boing. Ever.
By Cory Doctorow at 7:52 am Monday, Oct 4
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While I'm pretty skeptical about the majority of items in the Neiman-Marcus catalog, I admit that I'd be sorely tempted to drop $3 million on the AAirpass, a lifetime unlimited first-class pass to every American Airlines flight in the sky.
Link
(
via A Whole Lotta Nothing)
By Cory Doctorow at 7:49 am Monday, Oct 4
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Adnan sez, "I was browsing through a catalog of Gundam toys (y'know that famous bot anime) and i came across this - The McGundam - a group of mecha bots disguised as a happy meal."
Link
(
Thanks, Adnan!)
By Cory Doctorow at 7:45 am Monday, Oct 4
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Steve Ballmer believes that Apple shouldn't ship a music player like the iPod that can play non-DRM music. He says that in so doing, Apple has deployed a player whose dominant form is "stolen" material. Even though he's got MSFT customers living under his own roof who don't want to buy DRM products ("My 12-year-old at home doesn’t want to hear that he can’t put all the music that he wants in all of the places that he would like it," he joked.), he's committing Microsoft to continue its headlong rush to jump the shark by building DRM into more and more of its products.
Billing Microsoft as the good guys and Apple the villains of the piece - at least as far as corporate America, rather than users, is concerned, Ballmer said: "We’ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'."
"Part of the reason people steal music is money, but some of it is that the DRM stuff out there has not been that easy to use. We are going to continue to improve our DRM, to make it harder to crack, and easier, easier, easier, easier, to use," he said.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 7:26 am Monday, Oct 4
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For years now, progressive elements and copyfighters have been trying to get the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization to start thinking about ways of promoting creativity and development instead of just IP -- to get the organization to see that its raison d'etre is a better world, and that stronger IP laws is just one way of accomplishing that -- and that IP only works sometimes.
We've been foiled at every turn by the maximalists, the movies studios and the trademark offices, the patent-cops and the recording industry lobbyists and the IP lawyers' associations.
Which is why this is such good news: at the general session of the WIPO in Geneva this weekend, the Assembly as adoped a decision to put development and the promotion of creativity front-and-center in its goals. That means that from now on, WIPO isn't an organization that blindly supports more IP no matter what, but rather one that seeeks to improve the world by whatever tool is best suited to the job.
Jamie Love and the Consumer Project on Technology gets the credit for this: they were the ones who started this fight, and they've been the ones who led it all along.
This is the day the tide turns.
Bearing in mind the internationally agreed development goals, including
those in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the Programme of
Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010, the
Monterey Consensus, the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable
Development, the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action of the
first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society and the Sao
Paulo Consensus adopted at UNCTAD XI;
(1) The General Assembly welcomes the initiative for a development
agenda and notes the proposals contained in document WO/GA/31/11.
(2) The General Assembly decides to convene inter-sessional
intergovernmental meetings to examine the proposals contained in
document WO/GA/31/11, as well as additional proposals of Members
States. To the extent possible, the meetings will be convened in
conjunction with the 2005 session of the Permanent Committee on
Cooperation for Development Related to Intellectual Property. The
meetings, open to all Member States, will prepare a report by July 30,
2005, for the consideration of the next General Assembly.
WIPO-accredited IGOs and NGOs are invited to participate as observers in
the meetings.
(3) The International Bureau shall undertake immediate arrangements
in order to organize with other relevant multilateral organizations
including UNCTAD, WHO, UNIDO and WTO, a joint international seminar on
Intellectual Property and Development, open to the participation of all
stakeholders, including NGOs, civil society and academia.
Link
