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False Positives Adventures in Technology, SciFi and Culture from Toronto

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

The Art of Machinima

O'reilly Media has 3D Game-Based Filmmaking: The Art of Machinima by By Paul Marino (ISBN: 1-932111-85-9)

Machinima, defined as animated filmmaking in a real-time virtual 3D world, is an emerging technology that is revolutionizing how animated films are made. This new art form and technology involves using powerful game engines, such as the ones provided with games like Quake and Unreal Tournament 2004, to create animation films on the desktop.

See Spielbergs with joystick for more, and /or goto Red vs Blue

category:Machinima

list of fictional things

From the all-knowing Wikipedia, including (but not limited to):


Oh the evil uses this can be put to...(but that would be another fictional list)

AMD stepping out of the Shadows

From the Register, info on AMD's demo of dual-core Opteron box and InfoWorld has a special report on AMD and how they are comming out of the shadow of Intel.

Very interesting is the Chart of "AMD Invented Here" technologies that other has used and refined: HperTransport bus (Apple and Transmeta); NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access), DDR Ram (forced Intel to dump Rambus memory); Glueless CPU interconnects; x86-64

all this follow's up The Dual Core Wars: AMD vs Intel

Everything you wanted to know about blogging but were afraid to ask

Simon's World (an Australian in Hong Kong) gives 50 rules of the road/net, good , hard won, advice to would be and current bloggers.

And If after reading the rules you still have the urge, seek treatment....

Monday, August 30, 2004

96 Processors Under Your Desktop

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends reports on Orion Multisystems

In October, you'll be able to choose between a 12-processor unit for less than $10,000 and a 96-processor system for less than $100,000. These new systems are powered by Efficeon processors from Transmeta and are running Fedora Linux version 2.6.6.

Friday, August 27, 2004

Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) Act Compliance or How I learned to Love the SEC and Fear Jail....

The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, sometimes referred to as SOX, was a legislative response to the accounting scandal caused by the recent fall of some publicly held companies and the perceived excesses of the management of some other companies. Sarbanes-Oxley requires compliance with a comprehensive reform of accounting procedures for publicly held corporations to promote and improve the quality and transparency of financial reporting by both internal and external independent auditors.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s emphasis on corporate governance means tighter control of business processes for public corporations. A simple error -- such as an incorrectly entered transaction, purchase or work order -- can represent millions of dollars in fines if not detected and corrected in time. Financial management demands more visibility, more control and more efficiency.

The SOX impact on IT involves the controls used in the IT environment, specifically change management, operations, and security.

Summary of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

The Act is named After U.S. Senator Paul S. Sarbanes and Congressman Michael G. Oxley

Here's some new news: Sarbanes Oxley implementation postponed again

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it will delay moves to an accelerated filing period for annual reports. This is expected to ease the transition for big companies to the year-end reporting required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.


Update : More here IT Risks and Controls Frequently Asked Questions wrt SOX

Leaping Dragon, Soaring Tiger: Hero

Ying xiong aka Hero is finally released in North America, 2 years after its originally release. The Globe and Mail has a review, with some of the details : Miramax sat on the North American release for two years, threatening to release a shorter version until Quentin Tarantino convinced them to keep it at full length.

A cinematic tour de force that surpasses 2000's Wo hu cang long, aka "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" with it's stunning scenery and sequences. Director Yimou Zhang beats Ang Lee, supported by a his stellar cast : Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, and Ziyi Zhang.

Zhang's next film (Shi mian mai fu, aka "House of Flying Daggers", premiered in Asia July 15 2004 to great reviews, is showing up MUCH early in North America (thank you) with it's North American at our very own Toronto International Film Festival, with general release by the end of the year(?).

This site has a collection of international trailers, clips, and news for "ambushed from ten directions".

I came across this triva: This was originally going to be Anita Mui's final appearance in film and she had already accepted the role but, because she was battling cervical cancer, her part wasn't going to be filmed until early 2004. After her death on 30 December 2003, director 'Zhang Yimou' decided to alter the script rather than find a replacement. Anita's name will still be listed in the credits.


Thursday, August 26, 2004

RSS stands for Really Serious Money

From Wired News: RSS Attracts Really Serious Money.

Soon Elicia Soon

Watching a Movie via a USB Flash drive KeyChain....are you happy to see me or just watching the Godfather trilogy?

Mark Cuban (the only blogger that impresses Elicia!) writes about HDTV, DVD, Hard Drives and the future, looks at Hard Drive based media is very tempting given the Gigabytes per Dollar versus DVD (including denser new DVD formats) or Download. Especially when we talk about High definition content.

this approach to distribution is that it basically kills off the "Piracy is going to kill us" threats from the big movie companies...I ask if anyone in the room has ever downloaded or uploaded a movie or TV show in HD quality to or from a P2P network. No one has ever raised their hand...shipping around 18gbs per 2 hour movie isn’t going to be fast anytime soon. Make the file sizes bigger to accommodate better quality, and forgettaboutit.


Cuban is involved with HDNet (and other things) so he has some background to talk about these things.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Farscape: The PeaceKeeper Wars

See the trailer and be amazed...Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars will continue the adventures of astronaut John Crichton and his intergalactic comrades. Newly engaged and expectant parents John Crichton (Ben Browder) and Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) have been chased around the galaxy and have fallen in love, and now all they want is for their baby to be born and live in peace. However, they will first have to survive an all-out galactic war between the Scarrans and the Peacekeepers as well as the myriad outlandish and unexpected surprises that have become the hallmark of this award-winning series....Oct 127th on SCiFI channel (4 Hours!!!)

No Idea when or if this shows in Canada..I'll update if I find out...

For more on FarScape go to the http://www.farscape.com/


and Fade to Black

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Wireless News from RSS Feeds : news-on-air

SolutionPlanet (Developers of mail-e-on-air - Wireless e-mail/PIM for Lotus Notes/Domino) have adapted my Lotus Notes News Reader (v0.3) with their Mobile Development Kit, nsf-on-air, to create news-on-air, Wireless News from RSS Feeds, as a free promotional solution.

That is so cool! (Many Thanks Mats!)

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Japanese children's books from 1920s

Via Boing Boing a linjk to Kodomo no kuni in english and Japanese

Category: Asian/Art

Friday, August 20, 2004

Gizmo Society of End Users and Spime wranglers.

BoingBoing: Bruce Sterling SIGGRAPH 2004 speech "When Blobjects Rule the Earth"

Bruce Streling does this kind of near furture journalism better than anyone else out there.

Agile Pigs and Unit Testing Tips

You Are Number 6 links to this (his) article Agile Bug Finding with Risk Targeted Testing in Java, which lays out some best pratices in testing:

  • Run the tests every time you change something. If you use Ant then have a test task that gets triggered on change. Keep your old test results for reference.
  • Use XML for your test data. Hard coded tests are more difficult to maintain. An XML database is the ultimate form, but using a simple tool like XStream can do what you need. Use the XML include directive to share data between sets of test cases.
  • Check your test classes with FindBugs. FindBugs will examine the logic, which should be very simple in test classes. Having passed that your test classes can be safely used.
  • Use MockObjects or real classes with Proxy interceptors to keep the unit tests at the unit level. This insulates test classes, test data and test running against changes to other parts of the system.
  • The test class hierarchy should mimic that of the real code under test, this allows abstract classes to be tested properly.
  • For reviewing code use an integrated tool like Jupiter for Eclipse, that stores the review information with the source code.
  • Build metrics collection into your test process. Use the extensions to Checkstyle to get some and test to get the others. For example try running a complex test case 1000 times to get an idea of performance, or at the end of the test serialize the object under test and see its size. You can then watch for dramatic changes in metrics.
  • Use architectural checks like Macker rules to preserve the architecture standards.
  • Use a tool like vDoclet to generate an initial set of test cases and your basic JUnit test class from the interface definition.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, BarCode Fish...

(with apologies to Dr. Seuss) from Daily Yomiuri On-Line, via GadgetMadness, word about a Fish bar code system under development to enable consumers to receive detailed information (with thier cellphone) about fish at retail stores, including where and when the fish was caught and by whom.

Already Grocery stores in Japan have been using 2d barcodes for linking consumers with product information for a while now using QRCodes (two-dimension quick response code).

BoingBoing also recently noted: In Japan the QRCode is becoming wildly popular, for everyone with a celphone has a camera that can read these 2D barcodes and inst-o-magically input pre-formatted emails, contacts, URLs and even random text. and links to a QRCode Generator

I've bloged about Camera-phone barcode reader before: here and here and SemaCode, a URL barcode.

Update: and Gizmode gets in the act and talks about buying a Coke (pop) via Cellphone using (what else) a barcode.

Categorized under: //

Freescale to detail dual-core PowerPC G4

From The Register, Freescale - Motorola's soon-to-be-spun-off chip division - and AMD are set to detail their respective dual-core processor designs this autumn.

Let the Mult-Core, uber-processor wars begin.

The Case for VoIP


David Ticoll
writes about how VoIP is revolutionizing the business phone in the Globe and Mail (aug 19th 2004), and presents 3 case studies, from basics to power phoners, that show how your business might use VoIP.

reduced costs, more choice of suppliers (improved service, lower costs), flexibity (easier to use features, more features).

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

The Dual Core Wars: AMD vs Intel

As a followup on the upcoming Multi core uber-chip's, The Inquirer comments on the dueling plans in the X86 world, how ADM planed ahead with it's K8 core 2 years ago, and Intel's late response with it Paxville desgin being simply two Pentium 4 cores bolted on to a chip.

To give a idea why multi core chips are important notice this comment :

A dual chip Paxville system should be about the same in all respects as a four way Xeon system, and a four way Paxville should be about where an 8 way Xeon is.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Jaws in 30 seconds with bunnies.

The 30-Second Bunnies Theatre Troupe proudly presents:

Jaws in 30 seconds with bunnies.

The Economist's Style Manual

Via Ernie the Attorney, Ive stumbled on The Economist's Style Manual, inculding the discussion of 'Americanisms.'

(But don't hold your breathe)

Advertisers Go Digital to Track Ads

Reuters.com is reporting that The top four U.S. broadcast networks -- CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox -- have signed on to comply with a new 12-character code for tracking all advertising, called Ad-ID.


Ad-ID's designers are the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and gives advertisers a centralized Web-based system that helps assign unique codes to their Ad properties.

Via Tech Dirt who quite rightly points out the opportunities being missed to server the consumer rather the trying to serve up the consumer.

And then there is CentrSource

Any sufficiently handsome Accordion player is indistinguishable from Joey deVilla.

Accordion Guy started it and I'm sure, with his vast rank, will end it but I'll give it a Go

No big screen Television for me this year....

As reported by The Register, Intel is delaying cheap hi-def TV tech, which had been expected by the end of 2004, using "Liquid Crystal On Silicon" (LCOS), involving thousands of tiny LCD cells on a silicon wafer, as an inexpensive alternative to technologies like Digital Light Processing system, which uses computer-controlled mirrors to reflect light onto the screen.

This technique was expect to half the cost the big screen high definition TV's.

This continues Intel's very bummpy, 'Annus Horribilis'.

Heisenberg principle of projects

Words of wisdom (and caution) from Incipient(thoughts): the project managment equivalent of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle:

The more control you want on their status (or position), the less you have over their velocity. Pick one of the two - and pick wisely.


I would be tempted to phrase it : You can have Control (knowlegde of status, direction) or Velocity (forward motion), but not both.

Monday, August 16, 2004

Blinded by Science

Is Science Fiction About to Go Blind? article in Popular Science for August 2004 is now online.

orginally here

For a taste of what Cory and Chrile can do check out Jury Service (I'm still trying to get my mits on the sequel Appeals Court)

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Bureau 42 reviews Singularity Sky (Charles Stross)

here in preparation for the The 2004 Hugos.

In total, Singularity Sky receives 33/42

Charlies Stross is a writer to watch.


I like it too...

Saturday, August 14, 2004

John Perry Barlow 2.0: The Thomas Jefferson of cyberspace reinvents his body -- and his politics.

Via Hack the Planet comes this story in Reason.

Allways thought provoking.....

here are some quote-lets


Every existing power relation is up for renewal with cyberspace, and it was only natural there would be an awful lot of fracas where cyberspace met the physical world.
...
Physical objects have a completely different natural economy than intellectual goods.
...
Lawyers, doctors, and architects don’t work for royalties, and they’re doing fine. Royalties are not how most writers or musicians make their living.
...
The one thing that I know government is good for is countervailing against monopoly. It’s not great at that either, but it’s the only force I know that is fairly reliable.
...
We have a deeply symbiotic relationship with large corporations. I wouldn’t want to eliminate them, because they are the engines of our economic well being at the moment.
...
The Constitution doesn’t say anything about national security. The Fourth Amendment is the Fourth Amendment, and they’re gonna have to show me that it isn’t. Right now they are refusing to answer subpoenas.
...
Most libertarians are worried about government but not worried about business. I think we need to be worrying about business in exactly the same way we are worrying about government.


Boing Boing mentioned it too

VC Cliches

Via Feld Thoughts

Sales

* We need to clarify our messaging: Our customers and prospects (and probably our employees) have no fucking idea what we do. This usually also means the VC doesn't know what the company does.
* We need to do a better job of filtering our sales prospects so we don’t waste our time on bad leads: Our marketing / demand generation sucks - we're not targeting the right prospects. This is often a result of a nice pipeline, well presented and formatted, but with no resulting sales. Sometimes this is a marketing problem; sometimes this is a sales problem: often it's both.
* We need to strengthen our sales pipeline: We're doing a crappy job in sales, but I've decided to be nice today either (a) because I'm in a good mood or (b) I don't want to demoralize a team that knows it's having trouble bringing it home. I put this phrase in the "yellow warning flag" category - you usually don't get to hear it twice (unless your VC is a very blissful person).

Management Team

* You need to focus on your core business fundamentals: You guys have no clue what your priorities are. This is a cliche born out of frustration that often leads up to a more serious discussion with the CEO about the systemic problems in the business (or more specifically, why the business is melting down.)
* You need to get alignment among your management team: This one means two things: (1) One or more people on your team suck and need to go and (2) You - as CEO - are doing a sub-par job of leading the charge - and it shows.
* You need to upgrade your management team: If you have the ability to read between the lines, this often means "if you don't fix your management team, we'll focus on 'fixing' you."

Term Sheet Negotiations (Ode to Matt Blumberg's Post)

* We bring more than money to the table: Uh - yeah. What would that be again?
* That's an industry standard term: Hint - there are no industry standards in the venture business.
* Don't worry about pre-money - we'll take care of you later: Did your mom ever says, "Honey - don't worry about the water - c'mon in, it's not too cold."?
* Don't focus on percentages: This is kind of like saying to a 747 pilot "don't bother paying attention to where the runway is - just land where ever you want."
* Don’t worry about that term, we’ll never actually enforce that: Um, right.

Reasons to Pass on Investments

* It's not in our sweet spot: I'm still looking for my own personal sweet spot - maybe that's why I'm so sarcastic feeling today.

Friday, August 13, 2004

IT Myth 1: Server upgrades matter

From InfoWorld

Reality: Don’t pay extra for upgradability; you’ll never need it.

You Might add HD or memory, but that's about it. After 3 years (or less?) it's cheaper to Replace than upgrade.

Genetic Screen Identifies Compounds That Might Slow Aging

From FuturePundit comes word that statin drugs are known to activate PPARalpha

CR (Calorie Restriction) diets have been shown to increase average life expectancy.

But who wants be hungry all the time and look like Flynn Boyle?

Now Some researchers have found a some already used drugs may induce a metabolic state that will extend life expectancy by the same mechanism that CR diets extend life expectancy.

and that's a good thing.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

"Sir, I feel that I need to confiscate this book."

Via BoingBoing comes a story of a fellow getting hassled for carrying a Book by "security" doing are manditory bag searches happening on the NJ-NY Ferry, thanks to the RNC.

This morning, they're doing bag searches again to get on the ferry. And the guy doing the searches pulls me aside and says, "Sir, I feel that I need to confiscate this book."

I pause and say, in that tone of voice that most people would recognize as meaning, "have you lost your grip completely, chuckles?": "You need to confiscate... a book."

"Yes. I feel it's inappropriate for the other people on the ferry to be exposed to it."


What might they do if confronted with say the US constitution (and the Fourth Amendment) let alone a "Library" (dangerous thing those libraries...)? That would be an exercise of Orwellian proportions.

To hard for them

Forbes.com Best of the Web in reviewing The Standard complains that

The site lets you subscribe to RSS feeds, a complicated, XML-related way of reading news which doesn't serve much purpose here.


earth to Forbe's...HELLO clueless...Pat I'd like to buy a vowel or a brain cell.....or go to google...type RSS News readers....no dinner for you...

Inconspicuous Goods

How not to buy happiness (kottke.org)

Considerable evidence suggests that if we use an increase in our incomes, as many of us do, simply to buy bigger houses and more expensive cars, then we do not end up any happier than before. But if we use an increase in our incomes to buy more of certain inconspicuous goods -- such as freedom from a long commute or a stressful job -- then the evidence paints a very different picture. The less we spend on conspicuous consumption goods, the better we can afford to alleviate congestion; and the more time we can devote to family and friends, to exercise, sleep, travel, and other restorative activities. On the best available evidence, reallocating our time and money in these and similar ways would result in healthier, longer -- and happier -- lives.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Escher meets Audi

audi illusions

Illusions', a new spot for the Audi A6, is worth a second glance. Or two. Indeed, the more times you see 'Illusions', the more the sophisticated visual trickery concealed beneath its serene surface becomes apparent.

The spot features an Audi A6 traversing a cityscape that seems at first to be quite normal – mundane, even. But gradually the eye tunes in to the strangeness – warps and transformations of the streets and buildings that create impossible paths and spaces, optical puzzles that challenge the eye and the mind.

Usually the sort of thing that Vowe Dot Net finds first. Not this time!

NASA Gives OK to Fix Hubble Telescope

NASA Gives OK to Fix Hubble Telescope

(for some reason I want to shout) "Thunderbirds are a GO!"

This is why it's important, and things like this, although it's almost too late give that one of four major Hubble instruments, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), has stopped working

Monday, August 09, 2004

It's "Evolution in Action" for the Music Business

Via "Tim Oren's" Due Diligence and his "Electronic termites are chomping out the support beams of our music culture" comes a link to Contra Costa Times : Here comes the MP3 revolution By Tony Hicks

They (artists) are able to get their music out without having to have a record contract. For anyone who wants to get off the hook to record companies, this is a miracle.
...
What Prince is doing with his last record is really fascinating (giving out copies at concerts, writing the price into the ticket, and having them count as record sales). It shows how irrelevant the chart system is going to be.
....
The record companies had a choice to be proactive a few years ago, or hang on to their death-hold on the business.

(just use BugMeNot to bypass brainless registartion)

In light of how clueless the Canada ( Canadian RIAA calls for stronger copyright measures than in the US) and USA (Induce No More) Recording Industry continues to be, they will hopfully die off soon, before they clear cut the culture.

Elector

Another installment to Charles Stross' series "Accelerando" , the Novelette "Elector" has made an appearance in the September 2004 issue ofAsimov's

This all started back in "Lobsters" (June 2001) which started with this.

Read it on line here at (on) Asimovs : Lobsters and get hooked (esp if you have over-dosed on Slashdot), and Nightfall is still online

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Saturday, August 07, 2004

The difference between potentially and realistically

From vowe dot net The difference between potentially and realistically

very funny.

Friday, August 06, 2004

Rolltronics Display Backplane Technology, Can you say Video Wallpaper?

From Cringely The Big Picture

Current displays are controlled by transistors that switch on and off, and those switches are made by melting silicon on a glass plate. This is hard, expensive and does scale well. That's why really big LCD and plasma displays cost so much.

But Rolltronics' FASwitch doesn't use transistors and cost LESS per unit of area the bigger they get.

A FASwitch starts with two layers of plastic, one thin and flexible, and the other thicker and rigid, separated by large number of individual cells that correspond to the individual pixels in a display, which are the switches activated electrostatically at that one point in the switch array. The FASwitch backplanes can be bistable, the display pixels retain their image until they are told to refresh by the controller.

Imagine Displays that can scale from a few pixels to a movie screen to the entire side of a building. Low power, hi-res, large displays.

Give me, give me give me (and hook it up to a Uber processor please). Cringely says 3 years. I hope.

The Rolltronics web site also has more details.

Is this the Sound of the other shoe droping?

Over the past month or so a couple of article's have come to may attention that seem to indicate the beginning of a new computing architecture on several fronts.

Part of it is the failure of Intel's Itanium 64 bit chip set, which is not lighting the market a fire, while AMD's 32/64 Opteron chips doing very well in both performance and sales. Well enough for Intel to bit the bullet and introduce their own, Prescott, which has been plagued with problems. For a change Intel looks to be chasing AMD's tail for at least the next couple of years. A transition to 64 bit computing on Servers make a real difference in that it (at minimum) allows for addressing more that 4 Gb of ram. So we have begun this Transition to full 64 bit computer via the Hybrid of 32/64 where even the 32 bit programs and OS's are faster even before waiting for all your essential software to be re-written as 64 bit. And this transition will also occur (faster than they think) in desktop (if not laptop) in the workstation class machines (financial , engineering, and gamming situations where time is money).


But there are 2 other big sea changes going on in the non-Intel chip world.

One of these is the move to new multicore chips. This is more than just hyper-threading; this is two chips on one. The reason this is important is because the standard (old) way of doing Dual processor machines never actually got you as much as you thought it would. That second processor only got you 40% to 60% more bang for your buck, because of bottlenecks in inter chip communication. (and the more processors per machine the worse it got, with 4 way machines averaging only 20% improvement over the first processor) In a multicore chip with 2 cores (processors) on a chip it looks like a 90% to 110% increase over one core, and with more cores being additive in a similar fashion.

Sun Microsystems has cancelled its next planned processor, the UltraSparc V, in order to go with new multicore designs named Niagara and Rock. IBM is also adding multicore designs to it Power5 designs.

The other thing that opened my eyes was a series of articles on Linux Insider :
Apple: Up the Market Without a CPU
Grid vs. SMP: The Empire Tries Again
The Computing Landscape Has Changed
Fast, Faster and IBM's PlayStation 3 Processor
Linux on Intel: Think Dead Man Walking

The summary of this boils down to:
Sun’s new chips are both multicore and multithreaded and continue their tradition of SMP (Symmetric Multi Processing). Sun’s work promises major performance gains.

IBM is building a new architecture with Sony and Toshiba, called the Cell, which is based on a both multicore and multithreaded Grid-on-a-chip philosophy. The processor itself appears to be a PowerPC derivative with high-speed built-in local communications, high-speed access to local memory, and up to eight attached processing. The actual product consists of one to eight of these on a chip -- a true grid-on-a-chip approach in which a four-way assembly can, when fully populated, consist of four core CPUs, 32 attached processing units and 512 MB of local memory. The performance gains promise to be astounding. The initial use of the chip, at the low end, will be Sony’s PS3 (Play Station 3) at the end of 2005. This will also allow production scales that will (require) high volume fabrication and quickly drive down costs.

The articles suggest that Apple might have difficultly porting OSX to the new Cell platform, but can (more) easily move to Sun’s new platform, and that IBM will quickly rollout laptop based on the Cell platform and Linux.

If any of these new chip deliver there performance gains, on schedule, Intel looks to be in trouble in the short term. I would also wonder where this leaves MS Windows and the WinTel monopoly.

But it does appear we have a major sea change on our hands.
(see also The Computing Landscape Has Changed By Bill Nicholls

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Neuromancer Meets The Exorcist.

In "The Atrocity Archives" Charles Stross has produced a story which blends Lovecraft / Illuminati / HellBoy, with SlashDot, and a dash of John Le Carre to produce High-Tech Horror Spy novel, and it's good!

Very difficult to put down, and even more compelling then his Singularity Sky/Iron Sunrise stories, in part because it feel very contemporary, very "ripped from the headlines" in it's cultural and technical mix (with Monty Python references too). His answer to the question "What is a demon" is very neat.

It reminded me of Poul Anderson's "Operation Chaos", David Brin's novella "Thor Meets Captain America." and Raider's of the Lost Ark, although the setting was very up to date. I also keep thinking of StarGate TV series, because of the gate tie in, the secret government organization, and the sense of humor.

I also enjoyed the notes on the similarity and differences of Spy and Horror fiction.

I look forward to more stories from these characters.

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We will watch the watchers

Daivd Brin has a article on Salon.com (Aug 3 2004) : We will watch the watchers on the importance of using our new surveillance technology to "watch the watchers"

Each time the lesson is the same one: that professionals should attend to their professionalism, or else the citizens and consumers who pay their wages will find out and -- eventually -- hold them accountable.


Update : TechDirt has picked up on the story, which appears to be part of a larger work (a sequel to his 1999 The Transparent Society?)

CentrSource connects consumers to ad offers

CentrSource is a simple concept. It’s a central Internet site that matches up advertising offers with consumers who want them. It’s theoretically a place where consumers can find deals in their geographic area on almost anything from cars, to furniture to dinner specials at Luigi’s Italian restaurant down the street to everything in between.

Ads Offers Coupons Samples etc it's all at CentrSource "Adds to Ads", "Get.From the net."

CentrSource DMA.pdf

Monday, August 02, 2004

A city of Neighborhoods

Via Metafilter comes Toronto's Neighborhoods. A brief primer., which covers many of the place that make up the old city of Toronto (but not the newer Mega-City) including Summerhill, The Annex, Harbour Square, but Not Bloor West Village (although nearby High Park is)

Is Science Fiction About to Go Blind

A posting (OCR?) of the article from August 2004, Popular Science" Is Science Fiction About to Go Blind featuring Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross

Sunday, August 01, 2004

The Bourne Supremacy

Is as good as they say. The shaky hand-held camera stuff during fight and chase scenes were close to being too dizzy, but all in all a great sequel that furthers the original.


The Bourne Supremacy :: Universal Pictures