|
 |
Friday, December 19, 2003 |
 David Davies was one of the first mobloggers. He is now pushing the edge of the envelope again.
11:27:57 PM 
|
|
BW. Googling deep data. The devil, as usual, is in the details. Google has decided that its customers should gather information through inputs of text search terms by using more or less the same simple interface to search for news, things to buy, or any other topic. That's a small but important distinction. Google assumes that customers are smart enough to learn to search with words rather than with the graphical and pull-down menus used by most of its competitors. That's an understandable bet. Google has gone from upstart to Internet star with a business plan based on that assumption. NOTE: I am more interested in a flexible set of tabs that doesn't force me to add strange operators. For example, let me dump the "directory" and "groups" tabs, I don't use them.
12:06:29 PM
|
|
VIP-16 Bomb Jammer. It would be nice to see these in use on Army vehicles in Iraq. Here is another one configured as a backpack for infantry.
11:47:02 AM
|
|
Question: What are the odds that Milosevic will walk?
9:56:41 AM
|
|
Metapop. Was (is..) Pakistan the threat that Iraq never was? The ISI was probably behind the Musharraf assassination attempt too since it required knowledge of his travel plans. By invading Iraq and Afghanistan we may have set-off a chain of events that results in a real disaster: a radicalized nuclear-armed Pakistan with close ties to terrorist organizations globally.
9:27:49 AM
|
|
Telegraph. Mel Gibson gets Pope's blessing on the "Passion of the Christ." Mel put $25m of his own money into the project. This movie is probably going to make Mel a couple of hundred million $$. Love it or hate it, it was an amazing business decision.
9:18:12 AM
|
|
EPIC. Carnivore FOIA litigation. Interesting tidbits on how Carnivore works.
8:53:11 AM
|
|
CNN. Bremer admits he almost got knocked off too (along with Musharraf).
8:51:37 AM
|
|
BG. The FDA, operating as an arm of the US pharma industry, is working hard to stop US cities from buying low cost prescription drugs in Canada. Danger from Canadian drugs? C'mon. Needless to say, it isn't working. Shrugging off warnings from the Food and Drug Administration yesterday, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he will forge ahead with his pilot plan to import prescription drugs from Canada for city employees and retirees. The mayor traveled to Washington and sat down with a group of high-ranking officials at the FDA who urged him to abandon his plan because of safety concerns and potential liability exposure for the city. Menino said in a telephone interview later that the conversation ended on a cordial note but that he disagreed with most of the FDA's points. NOTE: This is about as disingenuous as the SEC's efforts to clean up corporate and financial market corruption. It takes Eliot Spitzer, the Attorney General of NY, to do ALL the heavy lifting for the nation. He is also taking on SPAM in lieu of the Justice department.
8:49:25 AM
|
|
Mark posted a very picture of a storm over Sydney (would love a larger version of this).
8:01:42 AM
|
|
Trusted Computing FAQ. I can't think of any applications or services that would make me want to turn on the trusted computing platform. Can you? Virus protection is perhaps the only sales point (which will drive the corporate systems to it in droves).
7:53:42 AM
|
|
NS. Test pilot Brian Binnie, at the controls of SS1, began the flight at 0815 PST, after being released from the carrier plane by its pilot, Peter Siebold. The two were moving at Mach 0.55 at the time of release. Binnie then pulled SS1's nose up to 60° and lit the rocket for 15 seconds. This blasted SS1 to 930 mph, or Mach 1.2, and an altitude of 68,000 feet (20,700 m). Another 90 seconds or so of burn, and the X-Prize is Rutan's.
7:41:30 AM
|
|
GM. The device blocked signals within a 200-metre radius around the President's (Pervez Musharraf's) limousine last Sunday as he travelled over a bridge rigged with five bombs meant to kill him. Only after the buffer passed the bridge was the bomber able to detonate the charges. "Most car bombs now, for instance, are remote-controlled bombs. NOTE: The five bombs on the bridge were supposedly a very expert job.
7:33:16 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
|
|
|
