Courses in Cyberculture

Very useful list put together by David Silver at University of Washington.

That famous Ridley Scott Apple ‘1984’ ad…

… can be downloaded from here.

Genius loci

Passing through Grantchester the other day, I caught this glimpse of the Mill House.

Apart from the fact that it was another beautiful Autumn day, what’s the significance of this? Answer: it’s the house in which Bertrand Russell lived when writing (with A.N. Whitehead) Principia Mathematica. There’s a wonderful photograph somewhere of Russell delivering the manuscript of the book to Cambridge University Press — in a wheelbarrow. The tragedy is that nowadays most people associate Grantchester not with mathematics but with the deservedly minor poet, Rupert Brooke (Stands the village clock at ten to three/ And is there honey still for tea?), or — worse — the unspeakable ‘novelist’, Jeffrey Archer, who has a house in the village, though mercifully is rarely seen there nowadays.

Automated gender detection

There was a lovely piece by Alexander Chancellor in today’s Guardian about an algorithm that, when supplied with a sample of text, can predict (with 80% accuracy) the gender of the author. A simplified implementation of the algorithm is available on the Web. Chancellor found that the algorithm thinks that most of the female columnists on the Guardian are men. I tried it with two samples of my writing — one taken from my book about the history of the Net, the other from an email message to a friend. The algorithm concluded that the first had been written by a man, the second by a woman. Hmmm…

So why did WIPO cancel its meeting on Open Source software?

Good Editorial in The Register. Quote:

“WIPO is an international organisation dedicated to promoting the use and protection of works of the human spirit. These works – intellectual property – are expanding the bounds of science and technology and enriching the world of the arts. Through its work, WIPO plays an important role in enhancing the quality and enjoyment of life and helps create real wealth for nations.

Given its background and mandate it is surprising that it scrapped its first meeting on “open and collaborative” projects such as “open source software.” After all open source software does, indeed rely on intellectual property rights. It cannot exist without them. It is, therefore, bemusing that the US Director of International Relations for the US Patent and Trademark Office apparently opposed such a meeting, claiming that such a meeting would run against the mission of WIPO to promote intellectual property rights. At least one of the major US software companies, probably beginning with the letter “M”, is reported to have lobbied against the holding of such a meeting.

It is curious that WIPO should have acceded to such “requests”. It is even more surprising that a USA Government Agency should so manifestly promote such views, at least in such a clumsy and unsophisticated way. It is even more surprising that WIPO acceded to such demands, if, indeed, these were the reasons for “scrapping” such a meeting.

Leaving aside the demand by commercial organisations for so called “open source” software products, governments, government organisations and agencies are increasingly seeking open source software products as cheaper alternatives to commercial software products, ultimately to the benefit of nations’ taxpayers. So WIPO why did you scrap this meeting?”

Careless driving costs lives

Well, who have we here?

Photo from Mugshots.com.

Yes, it’s Bill Gates, co-founder of the Microsoft Corporation and the richest man in the world. He was pulled in by the cops in New Mexico in 1977 for reckless driving in his Porsche. Gates was 22 at the time — 20 years older than Microsoft. Nowadays, he drives a Lexus.

Another nail in the coffin of broadcast TV?

Fascinating piece by Michael Malone about how online gaming is changing adolescent males from couch potatoes into team players.

DIY Political Advertising

Steven Johnson mocked up this anti-Bush ad using just the web, and Apple KeyNote and iPhoto software. (Note: you need a QuickTime player to see it.) Startling illustration of what anyone can do with a little imagination and flair.

Surprise, surprise: 90 per cent of US kids use computers

According to an AP report, a major new survey has revealed that most American kids use computers and the Net.

Well I never… What will these youngsters get up to next? Seriously: I’m putting on a new ‘introductory’ course in my Open University Relevant Knowledge programme. It’s about helping adults to become comfortable with the Net, IM, online music, digital photography, online chat, etc. The working title for the course is “Catching Up With Your Kids”. I’m now wondering if it should be “Catching up with your Grandchildren”!

New York mobile phone user gets bogged down….

“A man riding a Metro-North train dropped his cell phone in a toilet and got his arm stuck trying to retrieve it Thursday, forcing the train to stop and delaying the evening commute for thousands of people,” reports AP. [From the Guardian‘s OnlineBlog.]