Pentagon opts to go for IPv6

According to this report, the Pentagon has decided that all its systems will have to be IPv6 compliant by 2008. That should push a lot of people off the fence. Long overdue IMHO.

Ellen Ullman goes mainstream

Well, at any rate the NYT has reviewed her novel, The Bug. Flattering review, too. Quote:

“Ullman has already established herself as an indispensable voice out of the world of technology in her memoir, ”Close to the Machine” (1997), and in her essays for Wired, Salon and Harper’s Magazine, where last year she published a remarkable essay titled ”Programming the Post-Human,” about robotics and the spark of life. She is neither a booster cum franchiser of the latest terms and gadgets nor a Luddite with an ax to grind — Ullman is a knowledgeable skeptic reporting from inside the walls of a holy city closed to most of us and, to top things off, she is an accomplished stylist.”

Coincidences

One of the great things about living and working in Cambridge is the way one unexpectedly runs into all kinds of interesting people. Yesterday, for example, I was invited to lunch in Churchill College, and an elderly but sprightly lady plonked herself down opposite me in the dining hall. It turned out she was Winston Churchill’s daughter, Mary Soames. She’s writing her memoirs and is here to look up family papers in the College’s Churchill Archive. We talked for a time about her parents, and about the public perception of them as distant and abstracted. She says their letters to one another about the children do not confirm this image. Nor, it seems, do her own memories. But this may have been because she was the only child not to be sent away to boarding school. She also found letters in which Winston and Clementine agonise about their son, Randolph.

As well they might: everyone I know who had anything to do with Randolph regarded him as a monster. There’s a famous story about Evelyn Waugh in this context. It seems that Randolph developed a tumour and was operated on to remove it. Waugh was sitting in White’s (a right-wing men’s club in London) when someone came in with the news that Randolph was going to be OK because the tumour had been found to be benign. “Ah”, said Waugh, “the wonders of medical science — to have found the only piece of Randolph that was not malignant — and remove it!”

UK government launches inquiry into risks and potential benefits of nanotechnology

Guardian report. “The government today launched an independent study into the benefits and risks of nanotechnology, the science of manipulating ultra-small particles.

The Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering have been commissioned to look at this emerging area of science, engineering and technology to see how it should be regulated as it develops. “

Interesting that public concern is growing. According to an earlier Guardian story, “Nanotechnology research is on the increase – growing in the US from £270m to £378m in the last five years, and in western Europe from £79m to more than £219m. But it is Japan that is really going all out to harness the new science, with a six-fold leap in spending from £75m to £470m.”

A Toronto Thinktank suggests that it may not be entirely daft to worry about the potential pitfalls ahead. Quote: “In a paper published in the Institute of Physics journal Nanotechnology, Canadian researchers, from the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (JCB), claim that although the research into extremely small devices is still in its early stages and most applications may be decades away, it is already arousing alarm about people’s privacy and security.

Hailed as the first major scientific revolution of the 21st century, nanotechnology will make possible invisible microphones, cameras and tracking devices. And although it holds out hope of cheap, pollution-free production, little has been done to assess possible impacts on the environment when nano-materials are released. “

Wonder if any of them have read Michael Crichton’s Prey?

The Segway saga gets better

Now it even involves Dubya. Here are some wonderful photographs of the Leader of the Free World trying to master this user-friendly transportation device. Thanks to Denny Henke for the link.

Update: CNN has a report (and a picture) of Bush pere et fils riding round like zombies on Segways while Barbara very sensibly walks alongside.

Search for WMD the Microsoft Way

Try here.

Scott Rosenberg on SCO’s absurd Linux suit

The incomparable Scott, responding to an idiotic claim by a Gartner analyst that the Linux community is ‘cavalier’ about intellectual property, writes a magisterial put-down. Quote:

“Cavalier,” dictionary.com says, is defined as “(1) showing arrogant or offhand disregard; dismissive… (2) Carefree and nonchalant; jaunty.”

I can’t think of a stupider statement on this subject. If you know anything at all about the history of Linux and the open source movement, you know that it is precisely the opposite of cavalier on this issue.

What we call Linux today is an assemblage of parts — including building-block components created by Richard Stallman and cohorts at the Free Software Foundation, and the kernel first written by Linus Torvalds — put together, with great care and effort, across nearly two decades of development. Each part has been written from the ground up and protected by open-source licensing.

The GPL (GNU Public License) has its devotees and its detractors — and there are competing models within the open-source world. But that just shows how much thought and, indeed, respect these programmers pay to thinking through the complex aspects of intellectual property as they relate to ownership of software code.

Linux’s architects have been the opposite of “dismissive” or “carefree” on these issues. Their whole project is a thoughtful, careful, “slow and steady wins the race” approach to creating a new model for the intellectual-property basis of software. To call this effort “cavalier” is just stunningly wrong.

Sure, that new model may not be to the liking of many in the commercial-software world. But it “respects” traditional notions of intellectual property even as it tries to reshape them — and that’s one reason it’s proven so enduring and effective, and why Linux will continue to prosper while SCO is likely to end up as a footnote.

More Segway stuff

I ought to have guessed. There are some serious Segway fanatics out there. And even the Wall Street Journal is in on the act. Clearly Niles Crane of Frasier is on to something. (And thanks to Andrew Arends for picking up my mistake of confusing Niles’s surname with his brother’s forename.)

Clear Channel Purchases the FCC

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced today that it has agreed to be acquired by Clear Channel Communications (CCU) of San Antonio, Texas.

In announcing the deal, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said “This transaction will greatly expedite the demise of the antiquated concept of local ownership of media outlets. Critics of deals such as this need to understand that Clear Channel embodies all that is good and decent in the broadcast industry, and anyone that believes otherwise clearly isn’t listening to the news.”

In a statement issued today, Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays said “This acquisition is a perfect strategic fit for Clear Channel. The FCC has been a wonderful business partner for the past several years, and has carried out our directions with great enthusiasm. We are proud to welcome the FCC into the Clear Channel family of companies.”

Although terms of the deal were not immediately available, It is said that the acquisition will include all components, operating units and assets of the FCC, except for its soul, which was sold in a prior transaction to Satan, Inc. in 1996.

Clear Channel, which owns broadcast facilities, shopping malls, billboard advertising, and concert promotion units all across North America, has been on an acquisition binge for the past several years, and has recently broadened the scope of its acquisitions to include government entities. In a recent deal, CCU purchased a 50% interest in the U.S. Congress, and is reportedly close to striking a deal to purchase The White House. Clear Channel already has been integrally running the George Bush presidency. Clear Channel’s Stock stood at $42.09 at the close of Monday’s trading, up $1.39, or 3.42%

Satire? Only just. Thanks for Steve McGookin for the text.

At last it can, er, has been told: the True Story of the Segway

Many moons ago, my publisher rang me up with a strange tale. He had been invited to bid for the rights to a book on something called “Project Ginger” — code name for a product created by inventor Dean Kamen which (it was claimed) would transform the world. Nobody knew — least of all the hapless bidding publishers — what Ginger was, but it was revealed that John Doerr (the patron saint of venture capitalists) and Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon) were fanatically keen on the idea. “So”, asked my publisher, “should I bid?” My friend Quentin and I did some digging into Mr Kamen’s patent holdings and concluded quickly (as did most geeks) that it must be some sort of personal transportation device. And so indeed it proved to be — the Segway scooter (yours from Amazon.com for $4,950). Now the book of the great adventure is out. The NYT review is surprisingly generous.

My publisher, incidentally, decided not to bid. Smart lad. Interesting to note also that the only time I have seen a Segway on the mass media was when Niles Crane (Frasier’s infinitely precious brother) had one. Perfect casting, I thought.