Judie Hughes review’s TPC’s Fresh? Odor Eliminating Light Bulbs
Category: Technology
DHS says do NOT use Internet Explorer
This DHS announcement illustrates the tremendous costs of a computing monoculture.
The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team touched off a storm this week when it recommended for security reasons using browsers other than Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer. Mozilla and Opera are two excellent browsers. Mac users can choose from those as well as Apple’s excellent Safari browser. There’s also Netscape.
Business Week’s Stephen Wildstrom also says that IE is too risky.
Cassini Rings
Spaceship One Photos
Richard Seaman posted some beautiful photos of last week’s historic spaceship one flight.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Dean campaign architect Joe Trippi’s new book discusses the power of the internet and how individuals and organizations can benefit.
Congress goes after your fair use rights
Dan Gillmor writes about the latest version of the “best law money can buy“:
I hadn’t been taking some proposed new copyright legislation very seriously, mainly because it’s logically absurd on its face. But the “Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004” (PDF) seems to be moving so quickly that we have to pay attention now.
This bill, the stated purpose of which is to criminalize actions that might “induce” copyright infringement, doesn’t just overrule the Sony Betamax case, which gave us the right to tape TV shows to watch later. It would turn people offering totally legitimate technology into criminals, if what they offered could also be used for infringing purposes.
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch is cloaking the bill as “child protection.” It is nothing of the sort. It is a Hollywood-sponsored attack on fundamental freedom, and on innovation. (Ernie Miller deconstructs Hatch’s floor speech introducing the bill. See also Lessig’s comments.)
Monday’s Private Manned Spaceship Launch
Mojave Airport, with its stands of refreshments (orange soda and doughnuts) is the site of Monday Morning’s Spaceship One Launch. This will be the first privately funded initiative into orbit – paving the way for space tourism. Mike Hodgkinson updates us from Mojave. Mike Melvill is the pilot of this Burt Rutan designed craft. Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen has backed the project with $20M.
The Guardian Profile: Wisconsin born Steve Jobs
Duncan Campbell profiles Steve Jobs. Some classics:
Jobs on money: “I was worth over $1m when I was 23, and over $10m when I was 24, and over $100m when I was 25, and, erm, it wasn’t that important, erm, because I never did it for the money” From Triumph of the Nerds, 1996 TV documentary
Jobs on Bill Gates: “I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger”
Introduction to Bioinformatics
Robert Jones provides a very useful introduction to Bioinformatics, or the the intersection of molecular biology and computer science.
Vacation in Orbit?
The idea is to create a new tourist industry: “For the last 30 years, people have thought that space flight is only for a select number of government employees,” said Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and president of the X Prize Foundation, the competition’s organizer. “We want to change that mind-set.”