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Monday, July 29, 2002
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 Monday, July 29, 2002
started 7/29/2002; 1:10:45 AM - last post 7/29/2002; 11:03:38 PM
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Doc Searls - Monday, July 29, 2002 
7/29/2002; 5:10:45 AM (reads: 9195, responses: 7)
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Quick techno question 
| | Anybody know if there's a way to open these files here with anything that runs on OS X or Linux? Not a data type I'm familiar with. |
Whoa!
| | Mass market advertising is woefully inefficient and unaccountable, and always has been. It relies on a massive absence of good information. Companies like TiVo and RePlay are in a perfect postion to bring consumers into the advertising market conversation. But the Powers that Be (including equipment producers like Sony) don't want that, because they only want consumers to consume. They don't want them to show up as customers. That's bad behavior for a mass population valued only for appetites and cash. (Shut up and eat the ads, you plankton!) |
| | Too bad. It'll happen anyway, guys. The Net will route around your dumbed-down features just like it routes around everything else. And it will route from both sides. Advertisers don't want to waste money, and viewers don't want to waste time. The Net brings those two wheels together like grinding stones, and the advertising industry will be milled to flour between them. Count on it. |
I wonder if any of them has a blog?
Hm
| | I wonder if Eric Raymond and Muslimpundit read each other. By the way, Eric had a terrific piece on local cuisines the other day. I'd point to it, but BlogSpot seems to be returning error messages right now. |
A biological reaction
| | Funny: stories like this one used to be interesting and exciting purely on technical grounds. Cool! A new cellular computer from Sony! Now I'm just wondering if it's full of DRM spyware. In fact, given what Sony has done with clever chips in the past, my guess is yes. A damn shame, really. |
A bear question
| | Dave Sifry says the feds are setting up honeypot wi-fi hot spots to attract and detect the methods of wi-spy crackers. But he wonders: |
| | It's a cool idea, and getting real-world data on black-hat attempts to hack into wireless nets is very important, especially as WiFi use continues to come in the back door of corporate networks. Good intrusion detection tools that use the data gained in these honetpot situations will increase overall wireless LAN security, and projects like this will serve to further inform the world on the security aspects of wireless networks. |
| | However, this also further exposes a nest of legal questions. For example, as Russ Nelson asks on the BAWUG mailing list, "So if I park within range and open up my Win/XP laptop and it DHCPs an address with no intervention on my part, am I guilty of a crime?" In other words, how does one judge intent? |
Another ominosity
| | On his live show yesterday, Harry Shearer talked about a Microsoft story in which the most interesting news was buried in the 13th paragraph. The story quoted the company (or somebody from the company) saying that the days of the free Internet are ending, and that we'd all better get used to it — or something like that. I didn't see anything in the LA Times (the local paper for both Harry and me). Anybody else got a pointer to the subject? Unfortunately, Harry hasn't put up an archive copy of the show yet. |
| | If this is the case, then there is a huge opportunity for Microsoft competitors — Apple and Linux hardware makers, primarily — to start making hay on the absence of hidden subagendas in their base platforms. |
| | Platform makers are finding themselves forced to make a choice in respect to infrastructure: the market's or Hollywood's. |
| | Nature will ulitmately favor the market. That's why Microsoft would be unwise to side with Hollywood on this one, tempting as it may be for a company that shares Hollywood's obsession with protecting intellectual property at all costs. |
| | Here's a piece by Steve Gillmor, who has been exceedingly fair to Microsoft over the years, that makes clear exactly how difficult it is for Gates, Allchin, and the rest of those boys, to balance the what customers want against its obsessions with market control and DRM: |
| | But there on the PowerPoint was a decidedly untrustworthy attribute: "Enhance DRM." Digital Rights Management is the elephant in the room. How can we trust Microsoft with Palladium -- no matter how transparent or "open" the security model is -- when it enhances the ability of Jack Valenti to strip us of our right not to rebuy "Stairway to Heaven" for the 50th time this month? |
| | The pointer comes from Dave, who put the market imperative perfectly when he expressed it in the old Kennedyism: |
| | Ask not what the Internet can do for you, ask what you can do for the Internet. |
| | The Net is the market. Even with $50 billion in your pocket and a 99% market share, there's a limit to how often you can screw the market before it gets up and walks away. |
| | Microsoft also warned today that the era of "open computing," the free exchange of digital information that has defined the personal computer industry, is ending. |
Get your hard drive on
Ride on
| | My cousin Stephen Crissman and his buddy Adam Larson are celebrating their college graduations by travelblogging a 3300-mile bike trip from Santa Monica Pier to Long Beach, North Carolina. I like the first entry: |
| | Day 1 Miles: 93 Santa Monica - Wrightwood |
| | Woke up a bit late for our Pacific Ocean tire-dip missing our desired departure time of 5am by an hour and a half. While filming around the pier a bum yells at me "Don phillm mee mannn" and jumps off his bike and hits my new video camera out of my hand and sends it flying into the street. Luckily it didn't break. A sign? |
| | Timmy checked the water temp for us and we set off around 7am in pursuit of the Atlantic Ocean. Stephen's pedal broke right away so we stopped for breakfast at Denny's, I called Nadine, and then we shaved our heads. |
| | Their project is called Bomispir. Check it out. |
As promised
| | The main difference from the JabberConf version is the title. The original was better: Infrastructure & Anarchy. Maybe I'll go back and change it later. |
Message from bGlod
| | At first I thought the email from blogs4god was spam, but how could it be? |
| | Quite a few good blogs in the list there, too. |
C'mon. August. Iowa. Corn. Tech. Chris. Gretchen. What more do you want?
| | I'm gonna be at Gnomedex in Des Moines next month. Can't wait. Haven't been in Iowa since our family car blew up while we were driving through the state in the summer of '63. So it's been too long. |
| | By all accounts, it's a fun event. They've got Miss Gnomedex and a buncha other cool things happening. And it's still just $99. |
The funny thing is, I feel like I'm finally gettng started
| | I hit the speed limit today: 55. (Although I'm milking 54 to the last minute: around 11am Eastern Time. That's when I appeared at Christ Hospital in Jersey City on this day in 1947. A boom baby.) |
| | I hate getting older. It sucks and it makes you caranky. I'm pretty sure I was the oldest guy at OSCon. Most of the other folks there were my kids' ages or younger (my older kids, anyway.. they range from 29 to 32). |
| | My youngest kid is 5. That means we'll be able to get the senior and child discounts at some events. It's a blessing I look forward to counting. |
| | Related: One of my favorite Dorothy Parker quotes pertains increasingly to me as time goes on: |
| | I prefer the company of younger men. Their stories are shorter. |
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marek j - Happy birthday Doc
7/29/2002; 6:00:02 AM (reads: 847, responses: 1)
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What do you want for your birhtday?
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Doc Searls - Re: Happy birthday Doc
7/29/2002; 6:40:02 AM (reads: 909, responses: 0)
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A green laser. It's like a fucking light saber. I want to get into an argument with Michael Eisner and, right when he's making an annoying piont, whip out the laser and put a green dot on his forehead. Freaky, no? Very fun.
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Tom Poe - Re: Monday, July 29, 2002
7/29/2002; 7:35:58 PM (reads: 1037, responses: 0)
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On the issue of Microsoft and hidden agendas, I want to announce that I received word this morning from our first CLUETRAIN member who has connected the dots!
Get this. He's using webcast radio station that plays public domain works, community-based recording studio that provides free recording services for those that place their works in the public domain, and . . . . he's setting up to provide the next paid level for those ready to commercialize. This guy's gooonaaa be riiiiiich!
The thing we have to face now, is that with Hollywood's worst nightmare about to hit the streets, is the inevitable legal onslaught by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, along with the RIAA to prevent this guy from happening.
Let's think about how we want to move this level of attack onto our territory, instead of theirs. Any ideas welcome.
Thanks,
Tom Poe
Open Studios
Reno, NV
http://www.studioforrecording.org/
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Frank Horowitz - Re: quick techno question
7/30/2002; 2:10:35 AM (reads: 1904, responses: 2)
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Those are GIS (Geographical Information Systems) files (probably from Arc Info). It's not likely that you have anything that can open them (unless you're in the spatial information biz)...
If all you want is to ogle the pretty pictures, there are TIFF images at this URL:
http://greenwood.cr.usgs.gov/pub/open-file-reports/ofr-02-0136/TIF/
However, be warned. They are utterly HUGE images. (My workstation with 640Mb memory and ~2Gb swap is thrashing like fury trying to load the sanbte.tif image as I type).
Good luck Mr. Phelps. (Hissssssssssssss!)
FOLLOWUP (a while later):
OK, the image loaded. It's a topographic map of the region. Bluntly, unless you want to hassle with a lot of cruft dealing with such images, you're better off using http://www.topozone.com/ to find your region of interest, since they already have the GIS backend that serves images to your browser.
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Sam DeVore - Re: quick techno question
7/30/2002; 2:13:51 AM (reads: 1996, responses: 1)
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chuqui - Re: Monday, July 29, 2002
7/30/2002; 3:03:38 AM (reads: 969, responses: 0)
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Peter Schweitzer - Re: quick techno question
7/31/2002; 1:27:03 PM (reads: 1489, responses: 0)
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The files *.e00 are ArcInfo interchange format, and can
typically only be read by commercial software from ESRI
(http://www.esri.com/). It's great stuff, but if you're just
browsing, Sam DeVore's suggestion is the right way to go.
ArcExplorer is a lightweight GIS viewer that works well
for just looking at geographic data.
But ArcExplorer can't read the .e00 files. They're like
tar files so they need to be unpacked. A better solution
is to go up and over to the directory ../shapefiles
http://geology.cr.usgs.gov/pub/open-file-reports/ofr-02-0136/shapefiles/
Download all of those files. ArcExplorer can read these
directly (click the "add layers" button and navigate to where
you put the shapefiles). Right-click the layer to open a
context menu, select Layer Properties to change the color
or symbol of the data in that layer.
Shapefiles are less technically sophisticated than .e00.
They don't hold explicit geographic topology, like what
lines connect to what other lines or which polygon is on
each side of a line. But the shapefile format is published
so more software is available to read files written in it.
The interchange format is really designed for passing data
from one ArcInfo user to another.
More details about this particular map can be found at the
same web site or at
http://geo-nsdi.er.usgs.gov/metadata/open-file/02-136/metadata.faq.html
If you back up to http://geo-nsdi.er.usgs.gov/, you'll see
we've got a lot of data like this available. Please let me
know if I can provide additional information or assistance.
Peter
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