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 Tuesday, April 8, 2003 Permanent link to archive for 4/8/03.

Welcome. Again. 
 Beth is back. This is good. She has even reanimated her archives.
 
E Support 
 Dan Gillmor: Help Me With 'Making the News'. I'm working on a book, and invite you to be part of it.
 For starters, Dan provides a four-part outline, partly fleshed with prose (all good stuff).
 
Unintended subsequences 
 Here's a BBC News report on how the Coalition intervention in Iraq is playing in Kashmir. One excerpt:
 One who has spoken out is Omar Farooq of the separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
 He has found unusual common ground with leaders of the main party in the federal coalition, the BJP, in accusing Washington of double standards.
 He says the coalition action against Iraq encourages everyone else to think they too should have the right to use force to settle their own disputes - including Kashmir.
 "We used to look towards countries like America and Britain who used to be pioneers of human rights, telling the whole world that issues should be resolved through dialogue and not through force," he said.
 "Now that moral authority to prevent violence has been lost. That could prove dangerous next time there are tensions between India and Pakistan.
 "We know it's not going to be that easy for any government in India to do the same thing as the US did in Iraq - but definitely tensions are mounting."
 Unrelated: Lou says the bomb missed Saddam, and sources the BBC. He also points to this anti-BBC blog.
 
Day doo end-run 
 Dave: Speech and Weblogs. Very right-on and funny. An excerpt:
 Now Napster ran into trouble because of an ill-considered legal defense (I'm not a lawyer) and not a great enough set of non-infringing uses. They didn't fail because they failed to get the smelly execs on their side, that was impossible. That would be like Tiny Tim getting Scrooge to be a mensch without seeing any ghosts. That part comes later....
 One day, and that day is coming soon, a creative artist will use the weblog world to distribute a musical meme, good music, a catchy tune, and then sell a CD with a high-res scan of the same music, and that will undermine the smelly assholes and their cronies, forever. Say goodbye. That's their Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future. Bing.
 Bonus link: Channels of Influence, by Paul Krugman in The New York Times. That whole story costs $2.95, but you can get it free (in silly columns that don't work on some browsers) in the International Herald Tribune.
 
We're not all Bezos on this bus 
 Larry Ellison in the lead Marketplace feature (sorry, subscription required) in The Wall Street Journal this morning:
 Among his predictions: cheaper computers that use the free Linux software and other technical efficiencies will drive down prices. More software development will move overseas, seeking lower-cost labor. Maturation of the industry will lead to bigger companies, which will offer a wider range of products and take more market share from everyone else.
 
Evil spawn 
 Ed Felten is keeping up with Super-DMCA (that's right, they're even worse than the original) bills currently working their way through various state legislative mills.
 
Make a bonfire of your blinders 
 I missed the Computers, Freedom & Privacy conference (and their Big Brother Awards) last week, but I'm doing my best to find a way to Harvard's Burning Questions 2003 conference in New York at the end of the month. The theme is "The Quest for Authenticity and Enduring Value."
 The first two topics are these:
 
  • A renewed understanding of the need to create sustainable shareholder value rather than just meeting analysts' quarterly expectations;
  • A search for the strategic clarity and realism that are the framework for creating that value
 What I want to bring to the conference is a little something I've been learning while hanging around the Linux and weblog crowds: Creating and sustaining value may have nothing to do with strategy and everything to do with trusting the intelligence and resourcefulness of the people on whom you depend.
 It's a corollary to several of George S. Patton's best lines:
 
  • There's a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and is much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates.
  • Make your plans to fit the circumstances.
  • Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
 The Net, the Web, Linux and the standards, protocols and helpful products that make cost-free infrastructure useful are all the result of resourceful, insightful, intelligent, creative and independent minds. The best strategy is to create a welcoming environment for them.
 Companies today thrive at the grace of their markets and their employees. If the latter are not involved in the former, it doesn't matter how much company leadership talks about either.
 
Writing is helping 
 RageBoy: Other people's personal shortcomings make it hard for them to give me the compliments and attention that are due me. A sample:
 The chapter begins with a quote: "Therapy is not helping."
 Imagine me cracking up here, and all the other, kinder gentler Starbucks customers looking suddenly alarmed. Including the young girl with the lovely face sitting by the window with her boyfriend, and the really nice breasts.
 But now it's gotten late. Too late. Morning already. And I forgot to take my meds. My head feels funny. I got what I need, though. Another cup of motherfucking coffee. Peets, if you must know. Bought at the local Safeway, for christ's sake. However, despite daylights savings time (DST) -- which saves us from getting the daylights knocked out of us -- the whole point of writing tonight was to tell you about this particular Chapter 11. So whatever you do, don't stop reading now. Trust me, the last bit is quite amusing, really. Not to mention sensitive, perceptive and caring.
 It seems that the compilers of DSM-IV (by now you've gotten the hang of this, right? Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Etc.) first saw fit to shitcan the Passive-Aggressive rubric altogether, later thought better of it, but added the parenthetical "Negativistic Personality Disorder" rider, then, adding insult to injury, dumped the whole shootin' match into an oh-by-the-way Appendix. Moreover, they removed nearly all the really aggressive diagnostic qualifiers, replacing them with a boatload of nicey-nice passive descriptors, thus making the asswipes who not only deserve the pasive-aggressive label, but moreover, deserve to be locked in the darkest dungeon of the blackest bedlam forever, appear to be misunderstood little psycho-gimpy wimp-wits who wouldn't hurt a fly. Whereas they are, in point of fact, blood-thirsty vampires of the first water.
 It gets better.
 But in case it doesn't for you, I recommend Major Fun's latest post on Paper Football.
 Or, for the more technically inclined, Yoz's Hot Warez Roundup.
 Play on.
 
Like, you know... 
 I think we've come to a Good Place when a George Lakoff piece is found wanting on a variety of grounds.
 I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed as well by the piece, because it was so dry and short. It was also, however, chock full of stuff that approximately nobody else has been talking about: namely the metaphorical foundations for all our rationales — both favoring and opposing The War.
 I think we (those of us who tend to oppose war, anyway) need to revisit some of that stuff. To help with that, check out this, this and this, which are older and longer pieces by (or with) Lakoff.

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