“Free Bruce Schneier talk in LA today, 7PM” is the headline on a Boing Boing post today. My first reaction was: “Huh? Bruce Schneier has been arrested?” And then the correct interpretation dawned.
Reminds me of that old joke about the graffiti response to notices on walls in public spaces saying “Bill Stickers will be Prosecuted”: BILL STICKERS IS INNOCENT!
Listening to Tony Blair’s valedictory speech I was struck by two thoughts. The first is how good he was at reminding his party about how and why it won office (and, by implication, warning it not to forget that lesson). The second was that, but for his single, colossal misjudgement about Iraq, he would have gone down as one of the great reforming prime ministers in British history.
There were some really good lines in the speech — for example, his crack about Labour’s “core vote” being the people of Britain rather than its traditional “heartlands”. The observation that the only Labour party tradition he abhorred was “failure”. And his frank admission that some of the things that were done by Thatcherism had to be done if Britain were to become a modern country. Nobody who recalls the chaos of the Wilson/Heath/Callaghan years will dispute that.
That said, Blairism wasn’t the continuation of Thatcherism by other means. Listening to his recital of what his administration has done in terms of renewing the country’s public services, schools, hospitals, etc., it was impossible to believe that a Tory government would have done the same. A few weeks ago I met an American who had been a student here in the 1970s and hadn’t been back to the UK since. He was dumbstruck by how much had changed — for the better. And he was right.
So long as it stuck to domestic issues, the speech was terrific. But the moment it moved on to the ‘war’ against terrorism, it lost its way. Just like its author.
Report by John Markoff in today’s New York Times…
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 25 — Google is calling on the computer industry to create a simpler and more efficient power supply standard that it says will save billions of kilowatt-hours of energy annually.
In a white paper to be presented Tuesday on the opening day of the Intel Developer Forum here, two leading data center designers at Google will argue that the industry is mired in inefficiency for historical reasons, dating to the introduction of the first I.B.M. PC in 1981. At that time, standard power supplies, which convert high-voltage alternating current to low-voltage direct current, were required to provide multiple output voltage, which is no longer necessary in today’s PC’s.The Google plan calls for a shift from multivoltage power supplies to a single 12-volt standard. Although voltage conversion would still take place on the PC motherboard, the simpler design of the new power supply would make it easier to achieve higher overall efficiencies.
The Google proposal is similar in its intent to an existing effort by the electric utility industry to offer computer makers financial incentives for designing more efficient power supplies for personal computers. Existing PC power supplies vary widely in efficiency, from as high as 90 percent to as low as 20 percent… Er, an even better idea after making servers more power-efficient would be to move to ultra-thin-client networking along the Ndiyo model.
As the push for efficiency in power supply design continues to gain traction, the shift to more streamlined solutions is becoming increasingly important in sectors beyond just personal computing. For industries relying on continuous uptime and minimal power disruption, a UPS system is essential. A distributor of Schneider APC can provide tailored uninterruptible power solutions to ensure that businesses maintain stability, even during fluctuations in power quality. By integrating more efficient power supply designs, such as those advocated by Google, UPS systems can help optimize energy usage and provide greater cost savings over time.
In addition to offering enhanced power protection, UPS systems from trusted providers like Schneider APC can also support the modernization of energy infrastructure within data centers and beyond. With the focus on single-voltage systems, the adoption of more efficient power supplies will enable UPS devices to operate with higher overall efficiency, safeguarding equipment from downtime while driving energy savings. This evolution aligns with the broader trend toward sustainability and efficiency in the tech and energy sectors.
From BBC NEWS…
A book by left-wing US author Noam Chomsky has reached a bestsellers’ list after Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez praised it at the UN last week.
A speech by Mr Chavez cited Chomsky’s 2003 critique of US policy, Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance, as an “excellent book”.
Mr Chavez also said US President George W Bush was the “devil” who had left the UN podium smelling of “sulphur”.
Chomsky’s book spent the weekend at the top of Amazon.com’s bestseller list…
Thanks to Gerard for the link.
Hmmm… The folks at the Pew Internet surveys have done another one of their consultation exercises with various experts on the Future of the Internet. Main conclusions:
A low-cost global network will be thriving and creating new opportunities in a “flattening” world. Humans will remain in charge of technology, even as more activity is automated and “smart agents” proliferate. However, a significant 42% of survey respondents were pessimistic about humans’ ability to control the technology in the future. This significant majority agreed that dangers and dependencies will grow beyond our ability to stay in charge of technology. This was one of the major surprises in the survey. Virtual reality will be compelling enough to enhance worker productivity and also spawn new addiction problems. Tech “refuseniks” will emerge as a cultural group characterized by their choice to live off the network. Some will do this as a benign way to limit information overload, while others will commit acts of violence and terror against technology-inspired change. People will wittingly and unwittingly disclose more about themselves, gaining some benefits in the process even as they lose some privacy. English will be a universal language of global communications, but other languages will not be displaced. Indeed, many felt other languages such as Mandarin, would grow in prominence….
Full results here.
I’m often intrigued by the idiocy of the eBay ads popped up by Google. This one comes from Gmail in an exchange between me and a colleague about a meeting at Cambridge. The Alumni ad is clearly relevant. The eBay one is daft.
Truly, you couldn’t make this up. Leading covert surveillance company H.P. is an official sponsor of The Privacy Innovation Award!
Hmmm… BBC NEWS report…
Despite the success of Apple iTunes, few people stock their iPod with tracks from the online store, reports a study.
The Jupiter Research report says that, on average, only 20 of the tracks on an iPod will be from the iTunes shop.
Far more important to iPod owners, said the study, was free music ripped from CDs someone already owned or acquired from file-sharing sites.
The report’s authors claimed their findings had profound implications for the future of the online music market…
I was thinking of registering to access the Irish Independent site, but decided to have a look at its Terms and Conditions first. They include this interesting clause:
Hypertext links to this website by other users and websites are permitted provided that the link to this website is in a simple list of companies by pointing to Unison.ie’s home page http://www.unison.ie. This limited licence entitles other users and websites to link to Unison.ie’s home page only, and linking to other content on or information in this website is prohibited without Unison.ie’s express written consent.
Translation: no deep linking to our content. The result is that the Irish Independent is effectively shutting itself out of the networked universe. What kinds of clowns would embrace such a daft strategy? If people can’t link to your content then effectively you disappear from cyberspace.
Needless to say, I didn’t sign up.
Hacktivismo has just released Torpark, an anonymous, fully portable Web browser based on Mozilla Firefox. Torpark comes pre-configured, requires no installation, can run off a USB memory stick, and leaves no tracks behind in the browser or computer. Torpark is a highly modified variant of Portable Firefox, that uses the TOR (The Onion Router) network to anonymize the connection between the user and the website that is being visited.
“We live in a time where acquisition technologies are cherry picking and collating every aspect of our online lives,” said Hacktivismo founder Oxblood Ruffin. “Torpark continues Hacktivismo’s commitment to expanding privacy rights on the Internet. And the best thing is, it’s free. No one should have to pay for basic human rights, especially the right of privacy.”
Torpark is being released under the GNU General Public License and is dedicated to the Panchen Lama…
And — right on cue — the United Arab Emirates has barred the Torpack download site!